Hailed by the SF Examiner after his San Francisco recital debut as a "virtuoso talent, offering an excellent combination of solid technique and sensitive expressiveness," pianist Aryo Wicaksono has performed as a featured soloist and chamber musician in venues and festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe - and was the first Western classical music artist to hold a visiting artist-in-residence position at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Recent highlights include the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto with Indonesia’s Nusantara Symphony Orchestra, under Hikotaro Yazaki; Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto with United Arab Emirates Philharmonic Orchestra, under Philipp Maier; Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto, in a sold-out orchestral debut with Russia’s St. Petersburg State Symphony; Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto in Tucson with Civic Orchestra of Tucson; Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with QUO Orchestra NYC under Julie Desbordes; Liszt’s Totentanz S. 126 for piano and orchestra with Surabaya Symphony Orchestra; and a 10-city tour of the U.S. East Coast with Dance Theatre of Harlem. He was recently invited on a panel at the World Bank (Washington DC) to speak to emerging leaders, thinkers, and diplomats about the role and relevance of arts-education in the sustainable 21st century society. He served on the jury for the 2nd Thailand Mozart International Piano Competition (June 2012), and 20th Serbia International Competition for Young Pianists (March 2016).

As an educator, his former students have been accepted with full scholarships into prestigious institutions such as the Curtis Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory - Johns Hopkins University, Yong-Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, and University of British Columbia Vancouver. As a US State Department Artist Grant Recipient, he performed concerts – masterclasses – lectures in four cities in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica, and Sabac), in collaboration with Multikultivator Serbia and various conservatories. An active community advocate, he served as a board member of the Indonesian Diaspora Tri-State Chapter and on the board of the Art of Giving Back organization.

As musical director and pianist for the William Finn’s musical Elegies–Looking Up, Wicaksono won the Arizona Daily Star’s 2006 MAC Award for Best Musical Performance and the Tucson Weekly’s Best Musical in Tucson for 2006-2007 season. As a composer, Wicaksono created scores for the independent Japanese film short Dream of an Hour. He was pianist-composer in residence for the American Academy of Ballet School in July 2011, and some of his music was set into a ballet for the San Francisco-based Teatro Jaguar Luna.

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Mr. Wicaksono has been featured in full-length profile articles and TV features by publications such as the Jakarta Post, Arizona Daily Star, IndoGo Magazine, Kabari Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, and UAE Gulf News, National Public Media, Arizona KUAT Radio / TV, among others. 

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A grateful and thankful graduate of the Colburn School and the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music and Dance, he recently received the 2016-2017 Honors Excellence in the Arts Award and also a New York Community Trust Leadership Fellow Recipient. He is currently the Music Director of Improv Asylum NYC, and also works in the corporate law world, as part of Morgan Lewis.

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Harimada started his piano lesson at the age of 7 at Yamaha Music School, then switched to Yayasan Pendidikan Musik (YPM). Senior pianist Adelaide Simbolon and Iravati M. Sudiarto are among his dedicated teacher during his study in Indonesia. In 2001 Harimada won Second Prize at Jakarta Piano Competition, directed by Yazeed Djamin. In 2002 he gave his debut recital at Erasmus Huis Jakarta. 

Starting September 2003 Harimada continued his music studies at Rotterdams Conservatorium, the Netherlands, where he studied with Prof. Mila Baslawskaja. A year later he moved to Conservatorium van Amsterdam where he obtained his Bachelor of Music in 2008 and Master of Music in 2010 with cum laude. During his studies, Harimada also attended master classes from renowned pianists such as Jean-Bernard Pommier, Jan Wijn, Elza Kolodin, Hakon Austbø, Frans van Ruth, Jaap Kooi, Dimitri Ferschtman, Dido Keuning. He also took master-liedclass for 2 years and received tutelage from Udo Reinemann and Rudolf Jansen.

Harimada performs regularly in collaboration with many international musicians. During his stay in Holland, he also active as a pedagogue at Rudolf Steiner College Rotterdam and Hogeschool Leiden. Since 2010 he actively involves as accompanist in eurythmics which took him to several prominent festivals such as in Alfter, Witten-Annen (Germany), Den Haag and Dornach (Switzerland).

Since August 2015 Harimada back to Indonesia and performs regularly as a chamber musician. He performed as soloist with the Jakarta Conservatory Chamber Orchestra and Jakarta City Phillharmonic Orchestra.