Ayako Uehara
“Following her excellent Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky CD, the young Japanese pianist drops a star in this Prokofiev recital. For crisp fingerwork and genuine feelings she’s still supreme… The Visions Fugitives come off the best: darting poetic miniatures, dispatched with delicacy and panache. The Times, 25 April 2008, Geoff Brown
Born in 1980, in Takamatsu, Japan, Ayako Uehara became the focus of international attention after winning the first prize in the 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, 2002.
This season, Ayako made her recital debuts in Copenhagen and at the Tonhalle, Zurich as well as returning to the Suntory Hall to close her Japanese tour. Since making her debut with the LSO in 2005/06 season with Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Ayako has returned to work with the orchestra each season and this season performed with Vassily Petrenko. She made a successful debut with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Noseda in the UK and on tour in Japan .
Next season Ayako will return to the Vienna Tonkunstlerorchestra with their Music Director, Kristjan Jarvi for concerts in Vienna and then on tour in Japan. She will also perform with Orchestra Europa under Vassily Petrenko.
Recent orchestral highlights include engagements with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande at the invitation of Mo. Janowski, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with Fabio Luisi, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under Fedoseyev, Dresden Philharmonic with Simone Young , Russian National Orchestra with Mikhail Pletnav, Toscanini Philharmonic with Lorin Maazel and a tour of Japan with the Berlin Radio Orchestra and Marek Janowski.
>In recital, Ayako Uehara tours Japan each season and in 2003 made her London debut at the Wigmore Hall and returned there again in 2005. Other recitals include debuts in Italy in Varese and Cervara for the Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano; at the Ruhrgebiet Piano Festival (2003), the International Chopin Festival, Poland (2002 and 2005), the Dubrovnik Festival, Croatia (2003), Young Prague, Fontainebleau and at the Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall as well as recital tours of Australia and Poland.
Since 2003, Ayako has recorded exclusively with EMI International and has just recorded her third disc, Prokofiev Solo Works which will be released in December 2007. Other recordings include her first album “Ayako Uehara/Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata” featuring all Tchaikovsky compositions. Ayako’s first ever recording was her live recording from the Tchaikovsky Competition which was released in Japan and sold over 30,000 copies.
Ayako Uehara has also made several appearances with NHK Radio and Television, Japan, and Polish National and Satellite Television, and a 30-minute Japanese documentary was made of her earlier this season which was broadcast on Japanese prime-time television.
Photograph courtesy of Kunihiro Tajuma / EMI Japan
