(December 4, 1904 – December 26, 1966) was a Japanese conductor, pianist, and bassoonist.

Biography

Ueda was born in 1904 in the village of

Ōno ONO, Ono or Ōno may refer to: Places Fiji * Ono Island (Fiji) Israel * Kiryat Ono * Ono, Benjamin, ancient site Italy * Ono San Pietro Ivory Coast * Ono, Ivory Coast, a village in Comoé District Japan * Ōno Castle, Fukuoka * ...

(present-day Hokuto),

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

. His father, Haruna, was a doctor. In 1917, Ueda graduates from the Ōno Elementary School. In 1922, Ueda graduated from the piano department of the Oriental School of Music in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Three years later he joined Yamada Kōsaku's Japan Symphony Society Orchestra, one of the precursor ensembles to the modern

NHK Symphony Orchestra The is a Japanese broadcast orchestra based in Tokyo. The orchestra gives concerts in several venues, including the NHK Hall, Suntory Hall, and the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. History The orchestra began as the ''New Symphony Orchestra'' o ...

, as a bassoonist. Upon that orchestra's collapse, he joined the

New Symphony Orchestra The New Symphony Orchestra is one of the best-known orchestras in Bulgaria. History The New Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1991 in Sofia, Bulgaria by the music critic Julia Hristova as an alternative to the existing Bulgarian musical instituti ...

that was organized by Yamada's former orchestral partner, Konoye Hidemaro. Ueda remained with the orchestra until 1943, supplementing his income by recording accompaniments for

Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

, including with

Suwa Nejiko (23 January 1920 – 6 March 2012) archived at was a Japanese violinist who earned fame as a child prodigy during the inter-war period. In early Shōwa Japan she was dubbed . Although her career was mostly confined to Japan and Europe, she po ...

, and playing on soundtracks for

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

films. He later studied conducting with

Joseph Rosenstock Joseph Rosenstock (, ; in Kraków in New York City) was an American conductor. Career Early years He worked at the State Theatre in Darmstadt, where, on , he conducted ''Hagith'' by Karol Szymanowski, and at the State Opera in Wiesbaden, w ...

. After the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

, Ueda assumed the music directorship of the newly established Tōhō Symphony Orchestra. His debut concert as their conductor took place at on May 15, 1946. While at the helm of the orchestra, Ueda introduced many contemporary works to Japan, especially from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, including

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...

's Symphony No. 12 "The Year 1917". He also led the Japanese premieres of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 and ''

Song of the Forests The ''Song of the Forests'' (''Песнь о лесах''), Op. 81, is an oratorio by Dmitri Shostakovich composed in the summer of 1949. It was written to celebrate the forestation of the Russian steppes (Great Plan for the Transformation of Nat ...

''.

Anastas Mikoyan Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (; russian: Анаста́с Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Անաստաս Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան; 25 November 1895 – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik an ...

awarded Ueda the in 1958 for his services to Soviet music. Ueda died while giving a piano lesson in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

on December 26, 1966.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ueda, Masashi 1904 births 1966 deaths 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century Japanese male musicians Classical bassoonists Japanese classical musicians Japanese classical pianists Japanese male classical pianists Japanese male conductors (music) Musicians from Hokkaido