Mitsuko Uchida

Japanese-born pianist Mitsuko Uchida was born in Atami on 20 December 1948, to diplomat parents. She began studies at the Vienna Academy of Music aged twelve, with Richard Hauser, Wilhelm Kempff and Stefan Askenase, when her father became Japanese ambassador to Austria. She remained in Vienna when her father transferred back to Japan, winning first prize in the Beethoven Competition there in 1969, second prize in the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1970 and second prize in the Leeds Piano Competition in 1975.

She has recorded all of Mozart's piano concerti with the English Chamber Orchestra and Jeffrey Tate, and has won awards for her recordings of Mozart sonatas, Debussy Etudes and Schoenberg Piano Concerto.

Uchida lives in London, and was honoured with the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal in 2012.

A selection of articles about Mitsuko Uchida

Ensemble. Visits to the Doctor - Ron Bierman appreciates music by John Adams, Mozart and Rachmaninov from Ingrid Fliter, Edo de Waart and the San Diego Symphony

Andrew Schartmann's Musical Tidbits - The Anatomy of Music. Part IV: Hybrid Themes

Andrew Schartmann's Musical Tidbits - The Anatomy of Music. Part II: The Period

Andrew Schartmann's Musical Tidbits - The Anatomy of Music. Part I: The Sentence

Andrew Schartmann's Musical Tidbits - The 'Physics' of Music. On Musical Momentum and its Compositional Implications

CD Spotlight. Elegaic Melancholy - A new recording from Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble, exceeds Howard Smith's highest expectations. '... beyond criticism ...'

Ensemble. Assured and confident - James Gaffigan conducts the Cleveland Orchestra, reviewed by Kelly Ferjutz