Mikiko Uehara, Violin

Biography

The Japanese violinist Mikiko Uehara started practicing the violin at the age of four.  Both her parents are classically trained musicians and she grew in the atmosphere of classical music. Her father, Okitaka Uehara, won the 3rd prize at the International Schumann competition in 1969; her mother, Reiko Uehara (née Toyozumi), placed third and received a special prize for a Mozart performance at the Geneva International competition in 1970.

At the age of 11 Mikiko started taking lessons with the famed Japanese violinist and pedagogue Toshiya Eto, who taught for a number of years at the Curtis Institute and the Toho Gakuen conservatory in Tokyo (among his students were world-renowned violinists Akiko Suwanai and Yuzuko Horigome).  She continued her studies at the Toho Gakuen Uni and later at the Anton Bruckner Universitaet in Linz, Austria.

Mikiko placed first twice at the Toshiya Eto Violin Competition: once, when she was 15, as the winner of the junior section, and the second time, at the age of 22, as the winner of the Young Artists section.  She recently issued a CD containing Violin sonata no.2 in A major by Brahms, Prokofiev’s Violin sonata no.2 in D Major, Eugène Ysaÿe's Sonata No. 6, E major, "Manuel Quiroga” and Frank’s Violin Sonata.  She recently performed violin concertos by Saint-Saëns (with the Tokyo city philharmonic orchestra) and Sibelius (with the New Japan Philharmonic orchestra).