Piano - Azusa Ueno

Azusa Ueno, pianist, was born in Tokyo, Japan.  She began her piano studies at age 6, and at age 12, was accepted into the prestigious Juilliard Pre-College Division in New York City, where she studied with Herbert Stessin.  There, she gave numerous solo and chamber music recitals, and won a full scholarship award in her final year.  In 2001 she clinched top prize in the Hartford Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, which led to an appearance with the Hartford Symphony.  In college, Azusa decided to navigate toward academia, where she pursued studies in Social Psychology at Yale, but still performed actively, giving performances at Yale and New York City’s famed Steinway Hall in 2002 and 2003.  In 2004, she made her international debut in Nagasaki, Japan, performing with the Nagasaki University Orchestra.

Azusa entered the Masters program at Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in 2007; a scholarship student, she studied with Zenon Fishbein.  She was one of three students selected to perform in a master class with famed Bach and Mozart pedagogue Robert Levin in Spring 2009.  She won First Prize in the 2009 Miecyslaw Munz Competition, and was named a semi-finalist in the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.  She in now a third-year doctoral student at MSM, continuing her studies with Mr. Fishbein.  She is a recipient of MSM’s Jephson Educational Trust Scholarship and has also earned a Doctoral Teaching Fellowship with the Keyboard Skills Department.  She has attended and performed at Aspen Music Festival (2000, 2002) and PianoTexas International Academy and Festival (2008).  She has performed in master classes and workshops with Leif Ove Andsnes, David Dubal, Alexander Braginsky, Frederic Chiu, Anthony Newman, Olga Kern, and Malcolm Bilson.

She has appeared in New York City venues such as Steinway Hall, Yamaha Artists Salon, and Greenfield Hall at Manhattan School of Music.  This past year, she was a featured performer in Trinity Church's Concerts at One Series and the Chopin 200 Performance Series at the World Financial Center.