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 renowned 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 a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist from 2022 to 2025.  From 2016 to 2025 she was an artistic partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and directed a multi-season touring cycle of Mozart piano concertos from the keyboard.  Her latest recording, a recital of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas recorded live at Suntory Hall, was released in the summer of 2026.

Her 2026/7 season sees appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti, including a pair of special concerts in Tokyo for the 40th anniversary of Suntory Hall; recitals in Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam, Vienna, London, Luxembourg, Berkeley, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York; and further concerto performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the London Philharmonic and Vladimir Jurowski, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (also with Vladimir Jurowski), the Berlin Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel, and the New York Philharmonic (also with Gustavo Dudamel).

She has also enjoyed close relationships over the years with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony and The Cleveland Orchestra, with whom she has given over 100 performances at Severance Hall.  Conductors with whom she has often performed include Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, Mariss Jansons and Jakub Hrůša.

Mitsuko Uchida appears regularly in recital in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, New York and Tokyo, and is a frequent visitor to the Salzburg Mozartwoche and Salzburg Festival.  She is an exclusive Decca recording artist, 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 a Lieder album with Dorothea Röschmann.  Her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and The Cleveland Orchestra won the Gramophone Award for Best Concerto, and her recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations won the 2022 Gramophone Piano Award.  Other recent releases include L’extase, an album of songs by Debussy and Messiaen with Magdalena Kožená, and a recital of Beethoven and Schumann Lieder with Mark Padmore.

A founding member of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and Co-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.