Born in Tokyo, Kotaro Fukuma began his piano studies at the age of five. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 2001, studying the piano with Bruno Rigutto and chamber music with Marie-Françoise Bucquet. Before his triumph at Cleveland in 2003, when he also won the Chopin Prize, he had already won a number of awards in Japan and in Finland, and at the age of 14 had taken sixth prize in the Gina Bachauer Competition. Kotaro Fukuma has given recitals in Japan and the United States and in a number of countries in Europe.