Michiaki Ueno won the first prize at the Geneva International Music Competition in 2021, along with three special awards including the Young Audience Prize.
Performer Biography
Michiaki Ueno was the first Japanese musician to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, achieving this at just thirteen years old.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The composers Toshirō Mayuzumi, Tōru Takemitsu, and Teizō Matsumura, featured on this album, were pioneers who explored their Japanese identity while studying Western music.
Performer Biography
Michiaki Ueno, the cellist on this album, was born in Paraguay in 1995 and spent his childhood in Spain before moving to Japan.
Instruments
Michiaki Ueno plays two outstanding instruments: the 1730 'Feuermann' Stradivari, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, and a 1758 P.A. Testore cello, on loan from the Munetsugu Collection.
Historical Context
Mayuzumi, Takemitsu, and Matsumura belonged to a generation that experienced the devastation of war as teenagers and witnessed a dramatic shift in Japan's values in the postwar period.
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