Mitsuko UCHIDA

• jury, Piano 1983
  
• 10th prize, Piano 1968
  

Mitsuko Uchida is a performer who brings a deep insight into the music she plays through her own search for truth and beauty. She is renowned for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert, both in the concert hall and on CD, but she has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern and Boulez for a new generation of listeners, and her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra won four awards, including The Gramophone Award for Best Concerto. During recent seasons she has been giving performances of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas, and Opus 101 and 106 (Hammerklavier).

Mitsuko Uchida performs throughout the world with many different partners. Some highlights have been her Artist-in-Residency at the Cleveland Orchestra, where she directed all the Mozart concerti from the keyboard over a number of seasons. She has also been the focus of a Carnegie Hall Perspectives series entitled ‘Mitsuko Uchida: Vienna Revisited’. She has featured in the Concertgebouw’s Carte Blanche series where she collaborated with Ian Bostridge, the Hagen Quartet, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as directing from the piano a performance of Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. She has also been artist-in-residence with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Konzerthaus Vienna and at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. In January 2006 Mitsuko Uchida took part in the Mozart birthday celebrations in Salzburg with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti, as well as performing with the Hagen Quartet and appearing in recital.

Mitsuko Uchida records exclusively for Decca and her recordings include the complete Mozart piano sonatas and piano concerti; the complete Schubert piano sonatas; Debussy’s Etudes; the five Beethoven piano concerti with Kurt Sanderling; a CD of Mozart Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Mark Steinberg; Die Schöne Müllerin with Ian Bostridge for EMI; and the final five Beethoven piano sonatas. Recently released is a recording of Berg’s Chamber Concerto with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez and Christian Tetzlaff.

Mitsuko Uchida has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to aiding the development of young musicians and is a trustee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. She is also Co-director, with Richard Goode, of the Marlboro Music Festival.

Uchida recently won BBC Music Magazine’s award for ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ and June 2009 she has been made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

For more information on Mitsuko Uchida, log on to her website.