Yuko Uchiyama

Violinist Yuko Uchiyama joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in September 2005. She received a Bachelor of Music degree and Concert Recital diploma in 2000 (Premier Prix) from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she studied with Yfrah Neaman. She received a Master degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Donald Weilerstein. She continued to study with him at the New England Conservatory with assistance from the Japanese Government Art Scholarship. Before joining the Pittsburgh Symphony she was member of the Boston Philharmonic and the New World Symphony 2004-2005 season.

Yuko was born in Yamaguchi, Japan and began violin lessons at the age of three. She won several national and international prizes including 2nd Prize at the 6th Yfrah Neaman International Violin Competition in Germany, and first prize at the Hatfield and District Music Festival Competition in England. She was a semifinalist in the 2002 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow. In the following year Yuko won second prize at the Washington International Competition for Strings.

She received the Myra Hess Trust, Emily English, and Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation awards in London. She was awarded the Debut Recital Award from the Japan Federation of Musicians and the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, which lead to a solo recital in September 2001 at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. In the following year she was invited to perform Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Philharmonic at UH at St. John's Smith Square in London and St. Albans Abbey.

She has appeared as a soloist with the New World Symphony, Philharmonic at UH, Kanagawa Philharmonic, Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hibiki Hall Festival Orchestra. She is an active chamber musician and has performed at Yellow Barn Music Festival, and the Ravinia Festival held at Sterns Institute for Young Artists. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, traveling and discovering nature.

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