Mitsuko Uchida

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Lore & Background

Mitsuko Uchida was born in Atami, a seaside town close to Tokyo, Japan, and moved to Vienna, Austria, with her diplomat parents when she was 12 years old, after her father was named the Japanese ambassador to Austria. She is the youngest of three children. She enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Music to study with Richard Hauser and later Wilhelm Kempff and Stefan Askenase. She gave her first Viennese recital at age 14 at the Vienna Musikverein. She also studied with Maria Curcio, the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel. She remained in Vienna to study when her father was transferred back to Japan after five years. She was awarded tenth prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in 1968, playing Beethoven, Debussy, and Gaston Brenta in the finals. In 1969 Uchida won first prize in the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna and in 1970 second prize in the VIII International Chopin Piano Competition. In 1975, she won second prize in the Leeds Piano Competition. In 1998 Uchida was the music director of the Ojai Music Festival in conjunction with the conductor and violinist David Zinman. She has recorded all of Mozart's piano sonatas (a project that won the Gramophone Award in 1989) and concerti, the latter with the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Tate. Her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez won another Gramophone Award. Uchida is further noted for her recordings of Beethoven's complete piano concerti with Kurt Sanderling conducting, Beethoven's late piano sonatas, and a Schubert piano cycle.

Reader's Guide

Mitsuko Uchida's significance lies in her acclaimed interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy, and Schoenberg, and her extensive discography that has earned multiple Gramophone Awards and a Grammy. Her 2009 recording of Mozart piano concertos nos. 23 and 24, in which she conducted the Cleveland Orchestra as well as playing the solo part, won the Grammy Award in 2011. This recording was the start of a project to record all the Mozart piano concertos for a second time, conducting the Cleveland Orchestra from the piano. From 2002 to 2007 she was artist-in-residence for the Cleveland Orchestra, where she led performances of all Mozart's solo piano concertos. In 2010, she was artist-in-residence for the Berlin Philharmonic. She was senior artist at the Marlboro Music School and Festival in 1974 and 1992, and has been permanently associated with Marlboro since 1994 when she became a member of the Committee for Artistic Direction. In 1999 she became one of two artistic directors along with fellow pianist Richard Goode. She served as the sole director until 2018 when Marlboro Music announced that American pianist Jonathan Biss would assume the role of co-artistic director. Her honours include being appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2009, the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal in 2012, and the Praemium Imperiale in 2015. Her 2022 recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations was nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and won a Gramophone Piano Award.

Did You Know?

• Uchida gave her first Viennese recital at age 14 at the Vienna Musikverein.
• She studied with Maria Curcio, the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel.
• Her 2009 recording of Mozart piano concertos nos. 23 and 24, conducting the Cleveland Orchestra from the piano, won a Grammy in 2011.
• She was awarded tenth prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in 1968, playing Beethoven, Debussy, and Gaston Brenta in the finals.
• On 2 July 2024, The Times published a letter co-signed by Uchida calling upon the Holy See to preserve the Traditional Latin Mass.