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 is Musical America’s 2022 Artist of the Year, and 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.

NEW ALBUM – COMING APRIL2022

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

september 2023

05sep7:30 pmDublin, Ireland - Wigmore Hall Festival - Schubert

08sep7:30 pmLondon, UK - Recital with Jonathan Biss - Schubert

10sep7:30 pmLondon, UK - Recital with Jonathan Biss - Schubert

october 2023

01oct7:30 pmLuxembourg City, Luxembourg - Philharmonie Luxembourg - Debussy, Messiaen

05oct7:30 pmBerlin, Germany - Recital with Magdalena Kožená - Debussy, Messiaen

08oct7:30 pmLondon, UK - Recital with Magdalena Kožená - Debussy, Messiaen

09oct7:30 pmLondon, UK - Recital with Magdalena Kožená - Debussy, Messiaen

29oct3:00 pmSapporo, Japan - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart, Schoenberg

31oct7:00 pmKawasaki, Japan - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart, Schoenberg

november 2023

02nov7:00 pmTokyo, Japan - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart, Widmann

07nov7:00 pmNishinomiya, Japan - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart, Widmann

09nov7:00 pmTokyo, Japan - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart, Widmann

december 2023

01dec7:30 pmMadrid, Spain - Orquesta Nacionales de España - Beethoven

02dec7:30 pmMadrid, Spain - Orquesta Nacionales de España - Beethoven

03dec11:30 amMadrid, Spain - Orquesta Nacionales de España - Beethoven

06dec8:00 pmBamberg, Germany - Bamberg Symphony - Beethoven

07dec8:00 pmMunich, Germany - Bamberg Symphony - Beethoven

09dec8:00 pmStuttgart, Germany - Bamberg Symphony - Beethoven

january 2024

09jan7:30 pmLuxembourg City, Luxembourg - Recital - Beethoven

12jan8:15 pmEindhoven, Netherlands - Recital - Beethoven

14jan8:15 pmAmsterdam, Netherlands - Recital - Beethoven

16jan8:30 pmMilan, Italy - Recital - Beethoven

21jan5:30 pmPrague, Czech Republic - Recital - Beethoven

25jan7:30 pmLondon, UK - Philharmonia Orchestra - Beethoven

february 2024

07feb8:15 pmRotterdam, Netherlands - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart

11feb4:00 pmFerrara, Italy - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart

march 2024

10mar5:30 pmBaltimore, USA - Recital with Mark Padmore - Schubert

12mar7:30 pmPhiladelphia, USA - Recital with Mark Padmore - Schubert

15mar7:30 pmNew York, USA - Recital with Mark Padmore - Schubert

17mar3:00 pmBerkeley, USA - Recital with Mark Padmore - Schubert

24mar3:00 pmBerkeley, USA - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart

26mar7:30 pmChicago, USA - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart

28mar8:00 pmNew York, USA - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Mozart

FEATURED VIDEO

CONTACT

Kathryn Enticott

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

Isabelle Cottet

Managerial Associate
IMG Artists
T: +33785649352
E: [email protected]

Alexander Monsey

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

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