Manhattan Chamber Players

Canadian born violinist Robert Uchida has quickly established himself as a collaborative artist and concertmaster of note.   Known as a musically sensitive and cerebral performer, Uchida has performed across North America and Europe.  He made his professional solo debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada and has given recitals and chamber music performances at Barge Music, Lincoln Center, Yamaha Center (New York), De Doelen (Holland), Fondazione Kreister (Italy), and the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Canada.

Uchida’s many awards include a top prize at the Canadian Music Competition, the Hugo Kortschak Award for Chamber Music from the Manhattan School of Music, and first prize in the prestigious National Arts Centre Orchestral Bursary Competition, a competition which judges both solo and orchestral abilities. 

A devoté of new music, Uchida has worked with numerous composers including Richard Danielpour and John Corigliano.  He has given the Canadian premieres of numerous pieces by Augusta Read-Thomas (resident composer of the Chicago Symphony), the world premiere of Scott Wollschleger’s Solo Sonata (a piece composed for Uchida), and John Frantzen’s “In Canon”. 

As an avid orchestral musician, Uchida has played concertmaster for many esteemed conductors, including: Jean-Claude Cassadesus, Valery Gergiev, George Manahan, Kurt Masur, Christoph Poppen, Marcello Viotti and Pinchas Zukerman.  He has performed and toured with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, has served as guest concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and currently serves as concertmaster of Symphony Nova Scotia in Halifax, Canada. 

In the chamber music genre, Uchida has played with such artists as Lawrence Dutton, David Geber and Pinchas Zukerman.  His studies have included classes with members of the American, Juilliard, St. Lawrence and Guarneri String Quartets. 

As a passionate teacher, Uchida is currently a Violin and Chamber Music Faculty Member at the Manhattan School of Music Pre College and has helped with the development of Pinchas Zukerman’s Pedagogy system at the National Research Council of Canada.

Uchida holds degrees from the University of Ottawa and the Manhattan School of Music in New York.  Among his teachers are Hratch Manoukian, Patinka Kopec, David Stewart, David Zafer and Pinchas Zukerman.

Uchida’s recent and upcoming appearances include concerti with Symphony Nova Scotia, Windsor Symphony and the University of Ottawa Orchestra, chamber music with the Manhattan Chamber Players, and the premiere recording of Andrew Violette’s “Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin” with Innova Records. 

For more information please see www.uchidaviolin.com