Profile
UEDA Katsumi(Japan)
Chairperson of Managing Committee
Born in Sapporo in 1949. He studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Master) with Jun Date and Toyoaki Matsuura. He was a finalist at the Music Competition of Japan in 1969 and received the Ataka Prize in 1971 and the Kreutzer Prize in 1973.
He continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and the Universität der Künste Berlin with Klaus Schilde from 1975 to 1979. He won 2nd Grand Prize at the Concours International “Long – Thibaud – Ville de Paris” in 1977. He attended the lectures on Beethoven by Wilhelm Kempff in Positano, Italy in 1978.
He has given numerous concerts in Japan, China, Europe, and other countries. Besides innumerable recitals, he is still active in performing as a soloist with the orchestras such as NHK Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Sapporo Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, the Kyushu Symphony, Berliner Sinfonie, Deutsche Bachsolisten and many others as well as chamber music with some of the best-known musicians.
Between 1986 and 2005, he carried out a total of 27 stages of the“Katsumi Ueda Beethoven Series”, which attracted public attention . He played a wide variety of pieces at the series of recitals such as piano sonatas, variations, chamber music and Lieder. He began his concert series called “Composer Series by Katsumi Ueda” in 2007.
He has served as a jury member of the music competitions in Japan and abroad including the International Piano Competition Köln , the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, Geneva International Music Competition, Takamatsu International Piano Competition, and the Music Competition of Japan. He also taught master classes in Kanazawa, Japan, and Leipzig, Germany, etc.
He is currently Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Music at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and professor of Ueno Gakuen University.