Mitsuko Uchida

BIOGRAPHY

Mitsuko Uchida

2023 Grammy® Nominee for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations

One of the most revered artists of our time, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of the works of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, as well for being a devotee of the piano music of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and György Kurtág.  She was Musical America’s Artist of the Year in 2022, Music Director of the 2024 Ojai Music Festival, and is a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist across the 2022/3, 2023/4 and 2024/5 seasons. Her latest recording, of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, was released to critical acclaim earlier this year, has been nominated for a Grammy® Award, and won the 2022 Gramophone Piano Award.

She has enjoyed close relationships over many years with the world’s most renowned orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and – in the US – the Chicago Symphony and The Cleveland Orchestra, with whom she recently celebrated her 100th performance at Severance Hall.  Conductors with whom she has worked closely have included Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, and Mariss Jansons.

Since 2016, Mitsuko Uchida has been an Artistic Partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom she is currently engaged on a multi-season touring project in Europe, Japan and North America.  She also appears regularly in recital in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, New York and Tokyo, and is a frequent guest at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and Salzburg Festival.

Mitsuko Uchida records exclusively for Decca, and her multi-award-winning discography includes the complete Mozart and Schubert piano sonatas.  She is the recipient of two Grammy® Awards – for Mozart Concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, and for an album of lieder with Dorothea Röschmann – and her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra won the Gramophone Award for Best Concerto.

A founding member of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and Director of Marlboro Music Festival, Mitsuko Uchida is a recipient of the Golden Mozart Medal from the Salzburg Mozarteum, and the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association. She has also been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Wigmore Hall Medal, and holds Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In 2009 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Beethoven: Diabelli Variations

On 8 April, Decca Classics will release Mitsuko Uchida’s new recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Among the most celebrated living interpreters of the music of the Classical period, Uchida captures on disc her interpretation of one of the greatest works in the piano repertoire.

Uchida’s live performances of the Diabelli Variations have been praised as “mesmerizing” by The Guardian, “dazzling” by The Arts Desk and “compelling to the end” by the New York Times. The new recording of the work was made at Snape Maltings in Suffolk, a concert hall with which Uchida feels a strong affinity.

Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations stand alongside Bach’s Goldberg Variations as the pinnacle of the variation form. In 1819, the dilettante composer and publisher Antonio Diabelli commissioned around 50 of the leading composers in Vienna (including Franz Schubert) to compose variations on a theme he had written. Among them, Beethoven was at first dismayed by the quality of the theme (describing it as a “cobbler’s patch”) and scathing of such collaborative models of work. Yet, working intermittently on the set for six years, Beethoven was able to transform the mundane theme into one of the most sublime pieces of piano music ever written.

CONCERT CALENDAR

january 2025

21jan7:30 pmLUXEMBOURG - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA - MOZART, HÄNDEL

23jan7:30 pmDORTMUND, GERMANY - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA - MOZART, JANÁČEK

26jan8:00 pmHAMBURG, GERMANY - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA - MOZART, JANÁČEK

28jan7:30 pmVIENNA, AUSTRIA - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA - MOZART, JANÁČEK

30jan7:30 pmSALZBURG, AUSTRIA - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA - MOZART, HÄNDEL

february 2025

01feb7:30 pmLONDON, UK - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA - MOZART, JANÁČEK

23feb7:30 pmCAMBRIDGE, UK - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

26feb8:00 pmBRUSSELS, BELGIUM - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

28feb8:00 pmFRANKFURT, GERMANY - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

march 2025

04mar7:30 pmVIENNA, AUSTRIA - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

07mar7:00 pmLONDON, UK - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

09mar8:00 pmMILAN, ITALY - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

23mar3:00 pmBERKELEY, CA USA - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA TOUR - MOZART

25mar7:30 pmATHENS, GA USA - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA TOUR - MOZART

27mar7:30 pmPRINCETON, NJ USA - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA TOUR - MOZART

29mar8:00 pmNEW YORK, NY USA - MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA TOUR - MOZART

april 2025

04apr7:30 pmPHILADELPHIA, PA USA - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

06apr3:00 pmALBANY, NY USA - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

09apr8:00 pmNEW YORK, NY USA - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT - PERSPECTIVES SERIES

17apr7:30 pmBOSTON, MA USA - BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - BEETHOVEN

18apr1:30 pmBOSTON, MA USA - BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - BEETHOVEN

19apr8:00 pmBOSTON, MA USA - BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - BEETHOVEN

may 2025

18may6:00 pmLISBON, PORTUGAL - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

21may8:00 pmBERLIN, GERMANY - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

23may7:30 pmDRESDEN, GERMANY - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

27may8:00 pmCOLOGNE, GERMANY - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

29may8:00 pmHAMBURG, GERMANY - RECITAL - BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT

FEATURED VIDEO

CONTACT

Kathryn Enticott

General Management
Enticott Music Management
T: +44 (0) 20 7957 5834
M: +44 (0) 7771 600304
E: [email protected]

Alexander Monsey

General Management
IMG Artists
T: +44 (0) 20 7957 5851
E: [email protected]

Isabelle Cottet

Senior Assistant Artist Management
IMG Artists
T: +33785649352
E: [email protected]

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