Atsuko Ueda - Koi Furuuta Ima Mo Inishihe Mo - Japan CD

Credits:

Atsuko Ueda

Description:

The soprano Atsuko Ueda, based in Hokkaido, has made the essence of Japanese art song her life's study. This is her second album, with the distinguished Yoshio Tsukada at the piano. Entitled "Kofuru Uta" (Songs of Longing), it explores the world of love as drawn by four composers, setting Heian-period poets and modern poets alike. "What I always come back to is that wonderful voice. Anyone who hears that youthful, lustrous sound will surely recognise it as something quite out of the ordinary." (Midori Minawa, soprano) Born in Yubari, Hokkaido. She graduated in voice from Ueno Gakuen University. With Hokkaido Nikikai she has appeared as Laetitia in Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief, the Fairy in Hansel and Gretel, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Pamina in Die Zauberflote and Micaela in Carmen, among other roles. She has sung solo parts in the Mass in B minor, the St John Passion, Messiah, the Requiems of Mozart and Faure, the Coronation Mass, Beethoven's Ninth and Carmina Burana with the Sapporo Broadcasting Choir, the Asahikawa Broadcasting Choir, the Sapporo Kodaly Choir and the Yubari Linden Chor. In 1986 she sang a duet from La traviata with Aldo Protti. In recent years she has given recitals centred on Japanese art song; her recitals with Yoshio Tsukada at Oji Hall in 2014 and Hakuju Hall in 2017 were warmly received. In 2015 she released a CD marking the fiftieth anniversary of her debut, "Uta o Kudasai" (FOCD20109). Her teachers have been Masu Murai, Ayako Fujita, Akrivi Fukuzawa, Rodolfo Ricci, Hisako Tsunemori, Yoshio Tsukada and Midori Minawa. She received the Encouragement Prize at the Sapporo New Artists Concert and was a finalist in the singing division of the 23rd Sogakudo Japanese Art Song Competition in 2012. She is a member of Hokkaido Nikikai. Born in Gunma Prefecture. He graduated in voice from the Faculty of Music of the Tokyo University of the Arts. After working as an accompanist and repetiteur with Nikikai and other companies, he studied piano, organ and the art of accompaniment in Detmold, Germany, from 1975 to 1977. Since his return he has been a leading authority on the study, interpretation and accompaniment of Japanese art song. The Japanese Art Song Series at Ongaku no Tomo Hall, which he planned and devised together with Ryosuke Hatanaka and which has run since 1993, is the most prominent example of work that has earned him high regard both in Japan and abroad. He has made numerous recordings as an accompanist. In 1996 he received the Jomo Art Encouragement Prize, and in 1999 he became the first recipient of the newly established Tatsuo Mizutani Prize. He is a member of the Japan Federation of Musicians. Fontec