UEDA, Maki

Maki Ueda was born in Tokyo and started to learn the piano at the age of five. After first studying at the Music School for Children attached to Toho Gakuen, she proceeded to the Tokyo Metropolitan High School of Music and Fine Arts where she majored in Composition. She is a graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts majoring in Composition. She also has the PhD Diploma in Musicology from the Graduate School of her alma mater. She has studied composition under Yutaka Takahashi, Tetsuya Kato and Manabu Kawai.
2nd Prize at the 12th Sogakudo Competition of Japanese Songs, Composition Section.
Winner of the 18th Asahi Composition Prize (choral suite).
Her recent works include: “ Yume no Imi” (The Meaning of Dream), a suite for chorus (commissioned work for the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, 2007; Fontec/Zen-on music Co., Ltd.), “ A Small Lyrical Suite” for flute and piano (2007; Diskart/Zen-on music Co., Ltd.), “Akebono” (Dawn) for orchestra (commissioned work for the Yokohama Sinfonietta, 2008), “Arashi no Yoru ni” (On the Night of the Storm), a suite for children’s chorus (commissioned work for the NHK Tokyo Children Chorus, 2008; Zen-on music Co., Ltd.), “ Ametsuchi no Uta” (Songs of the Heavens and the Earth), for a suite for children’s chorus and orchestra (commissioned work for Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd., 2013; Octavia Records/Zen-on music Co., Ltd.), “Boku ga Mamoru” (I Shall Protect You) and “Positive Taro” (Positive Boy), set pieces of music for the NHK All Japan School Music Competition, Senior High School Category (2011, 2018; Fontec/NHK publisher), etc.
Ueda provides works in support of  “Kokohana Project”, a restoration project following the Great East Japan Earthquake, and those works are published (2012, 2019; King Records/Zen-on music Co., Ltd.).
Besides her composition work, she also continues her research on Japanese music terminology. Her article “Meiji Gakugo Kotohajime” (Creation of Western Music Terminology in Japan in the Beginning of the Meiji Era) was published in the Music Magazine “New Composer”. 
Ueda is a Part Time Lecturer both at the Kunitachi College of Music and Toho Gakuen School of Music.