Peter Friis Johansson is known for his fiery performances, nuanced approach, and his insightful
programming. He has earned international acclaim through his performances with leading
ensembles and his prize-winning successes at numerous international piano competitions.
The story does, however, begin quite unglamorous. At age nine, in a suburb of Stockholm, Peter
Friis Johansson enrolls in free of cost public music school and the rise of his musical abilities
starts with Inger Flyckt as his teacher. When he later studies at the Royal College of Music in
Stockholm his teachers are Anders Kilström and Mats Widlund, and outside of the academical
world, he further develops his musicality with Konstantin Bogino as his mentor.
As a student, Mr. Friis Johansson's career is flourishing. He embarks on several Scandinavian
tours and, along with Jakob Koranyi, records a CD that is later crowned album of the year by
magazine MusicWeb International. He is discovered by Swedish Radio who makes him their
artist in residence and embarks on a tour of Europe with clarinetist Emil Jonason, performing
concerts in, among others venues, the Musikverein and the Concertgebouw.
But in the summer of 2012, disaster strikes. Peter’s career is devastated by an injury in a finger
and suddenly everything is different. For a year he performs concerts with nine functioning
fingers and when the injury is finally fully healed, we meet a changed artist and person. Peter
makes his international comeback at the 'Alaska International Piano-e-Competition 2014'. The
competition is a triumphant success for Peter who wins the first prize, gold medal and takes his
first step in his US career.
Mr. Friis Johansson is currently performing cycles of Franz Schubert's eleven completed piano
sonatas, he will also record the cycle of sonatas during the coming years. He has premiered
concerti by Sven-David Sandström and Andrea Tarrodi with the Gothenburg Symphony
Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2020, he completed and
premiered the piano concerto by Laura Netzel with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to his solo career, Peter is a passionate chamber musician who has engaged in
long-term projects with, among others, cellists Andreas Brantelid and Jakob Koranyi. With Emil
Jonason, he forms the duo Emil&Peter, whose current project 'Worst of Emil&Peter' seamlessly
blends music with acting and the spoken word. The same idea is present in Peter’s solo project
'The Final Frontier', a concert with a science fiction theme that through the use of modern
technology updates the piano recital to an art form created for modern day society.
Peter is also active as an entrepreneur and as a teacher. In the summer of 2017 he, together
with cellist Jakob Koranyi, founded the Järna Festival Academy. During 2015-2020, he taught at
the Academy of Music in Västerås and has previously given lectures in the history of ideas and
rhetoric organized by the Academy of Music in Ingesund. He regularly gives master classes at
music conservatories in Sweden and abroad.