Mitsuko Uchida Won Her Second Grammy

Japan's legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida, 68, won her second Grammy Award for her co-performance album of Schumann's  Liederkreis, etc. with Dorothea Roschmann at the 59th Grammy Awards awarding ceremony in Los Angeles, February 12.

The album was awarded the Best Classical Solo Vocal Award. Uchida was not present at the awarding ceremony.

This is Uchida's second Grammy. The conductor Seiji Ozawa was awarded last year the Best Operatic Recordings Award, and Uchida's feat marks Japan's two consecutive Grammies in the classical music division.

Mitsuko Uchida hails from Shizuoka and is highly acclaimed as a virtuoso piano at home and abroad. Her activities have long centered in London and she was titled Imperial State Dame, equivalent to the knighthood for male, in 2009.

Uchida had recorded a Mozart with the Cleveland Orchestra to win her first Grammy in the Instrumental Soloist Performances division and concurrently bestowed the Award of the Japan Art Academy.

Ryuji Sakamoto was nominated for the Best Soundtrack Composition with his work in the movie "The Revenant" starred by Leonardo DiCaprio but narrowly missed award. The award went to the US composer John Williams for his piece for the movie "Star Wards: The Force Awakens".

The guitarist Masa Kohama was party to the album "The Last Days of Oakland" by Fantastic Negrito of the US which grabbed the Best Contemporary Blues Album.
The Grammy Awards are contested in 84 division this year, and a focal point is the head-on crash between Adele and Beyoncé challenging the Record of Year.

Back to Mitsuko Uchida, she traveled to Vienna at the age of 12 and studied her way up to win the second place in the 1970 International Chopin Piano Competition. Uchida has won herself a worldwide fame as one of the topmost Morzartians. In 2015, Mitsuko Uchida was honored with a Praemium Imperiale. (Nathan Shiga)