Nozomi Ueda

Nozomi Ueda started playing the clarinet at the age of 12. After studying at Osaka College of Music, she moved to the United States and completed a master's degree at the Juilliard School of Music. She won first place in the clarinet section of the 68th Japan Music Competition, giving her a push to begin her performance career in earnest. Since then, she has received many music awards, including an award from the 2nd Carl Nielsen International Music Competition, and the 5th Matsukata Hall Music Award Grand Prize. While developing her activities as a soloist, she continues to be active as a member of Next Mushroom Promotion, a contemporary music performance group formed in July 2001, and has received high praise in the field of contemporary music. In 2006, she received the Keizo Saji Prize from the Suntory Music Foundation. With Ensemble Kujoyama, which was newly formed in 2015, she also received the 2019 Music Critic Club Award Honorable Mention Award and the 2019 Osaka Cultural Festival Award Honorable Mention Award. She has been invited to both domestic and international organizations such as, Bartók Music Festival (Hungary), Daegu International Contemporary Music Festival (South Korea), Festival International Cervantino (Mexico), Suntory Summer Festival (Tokyo), Venice Biennale (Italy), Takefu International Music Festival (Fukui), and to Stanford University (USA). She currently lectures part-time at Osaka College of Music, Kyoto City University of Arts, and Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts. She is concurrently a member of the Kobe City Chamber Orchestra, Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, and Ensemble Kujoyama.