Reiko Uchida began studies at the age of four in Los Angeles with Dorothy Hwang, and at nine made her solo debut with the Los Angeles Repertory Chamber Orchestra. She received the ARTS Prize in Florida, and first prize in both the Coleman Chamber Music Competition and the Johanna Hodges Piano Competition in California. Miss Uchida has performed at the Taos, Tanglewood and Marlboro Music Festivals, and has been soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute, where she received her Bachelor's degree, studying with Claude Frank and Leon Fleisher. She is currently a Master's degree candidate at the Mannes College of Music, where she works with Edward Aldwell.

"There was a piano in the house and I started playing around on it when I was very little. I still have a scar from when I fell off the piano bench! I began lessons when I was four.

"One of my happiest experiences was a rehearsal I had at school of the Mozart A Major Concerto. It was late in the evening on a beautiful autumn day. We couldn't use the concert hall so we squeezed the entire orchestra into a small practice room. Everything about this rehearsal -- the music, the orchestra -- made me so happy I thought I was in heaven.

"I'd love to have a career one day where I'd get to do a bit of everything -- give solo recitals, perform chamber music, accompany singers, teach -- and still have time to practice, and enjoy life. Other things I'd like to accomplish: be fluent in another language, throw a Frisbee and shoot a basketball well, and ride a Harley Davidson in New Mexico."