| 1 | Name: | Ms. Mitsuko Uchida | |
| Institution: | Marlboro Music Festival, Vermont | ||
| Year Elected: | 2003 | ||
| Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | ||
| Subdivision: | 501. Creative Artists | ||
| Residency: | International | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1948 | ||
Mitsuko Uchida is one of the world's most renowned pianists. Born to a family of Japanese diplomats, she spent most of her life in various European capitals. At the age of 15, she gave her first public recital in the Brahms Hall in Vienna. Her recordings of Mozart's complete piano sonatas and concertos in the 1980s rank among the most sensitive and profound interpretations of Mozart's keyboard music. She has since set similar milestones for the piano music of Schubert and Schoenberg. Ms. Uchida has been an inspired artistic director at the Marlboro Festival since 2000 and at the Ojai Festival in California in earlier years. She lectures frequently on music and performing arts. She is deeply interested in musical history and musicology, and that interest is integrated in her performances. In 2015 she was awarded the Praemium Imperiale, Japan's highest cultural honor. She has won two Grammy awards: one for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance in 2011 and one for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2017. | |||