HIROMI has been began playing the piano since age six and studied composition at the Yamaha Music School. At age 17, she performed with Chick Corea. In 1999, she enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston. While a student, she signed with the prestigious jazz label Telarc and made her international debut in 2003 with the album “Another Mind.” In 2008, she released the album “Duet” with Chick Corea. In 2011, she won the “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” award at the 53rd Grammy Awards for her collaboration with Stanley Clarke, “The Stanley Clarke Band Featuring Hiromi Uehara.” In 2013, to coincide with the US release of her album “MOVE,” she appeared on the cover of the April issue of Downbeat, America’s most prestigious jazz magazine. In April 2016, Hiromi released her 4th album, “SPARK,” as the Trio Project FT. Anthony Jackson & Simon Phillips, which reached number 1 on the US Billboard Jazz Chart. In 2017, she performed at the BBC Proms, released the album “Live in Montreal” with Colombian harpist Edmar Castaneda, and became the only Japanese artist to perform at New York’s Blue Note for 13 consecutive years. In 2019, she released her 1st solo piano album in 10 years, “SPECTRUM.” Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, she has launched the “SAVE LIVE MUSIC” series at Blue Note Tokyo to support the struggling live music industry. Despite various restrictions, she has performed over 100 times. In July 2021, she performed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Opening Ceremony. In September, Hiromi Uehara The Piano Quintet, a new project born from SAVE LIVE MUSIC, released the album SILVER LINING SUITE worldwide. She served as music director for the film BLUE GIANT, which was released in theaters in February 2023, and won the Best Original Score Award at the 47th Japan Academy Awards. In September, she released the album Sonicwonderland as part of her new project, Hiromi’s Sonicwonder. She also made a splash by appearing on the popular program Tiny Desk Concerts, organized by the American broadcasting station NPR. Hiromi’s Sonicwonder‘s latest album, OUT THERE, was released in April 2025. In Japan, he has received the 57th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize in the Popular Entertainment category in 2007, the Japan Record Award for Best Album in 2008 and 2017, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs Commissioner’s Award in 2023.
I had the honor of spending a little time chatting with HIROMI ahead of the October 2nd show with SONICWONDER in Madison at the Union Theater’s Shannon Hall. We got into the pieces of the group that will be creating all this wonder when they hit Madison. Each artist brings that something she was looking for. I had caught their set t the Detroit Jazz Festival this year and we chatted about that experience and the specialness of an audience that is ready for everything. We dive into the creation of the latest release OUT THERE from SONICWONDER and the power of improvised music. When discussing her participation in the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, it was refreshing to hear that this show in Madison will be just as important to her as that one. No surprise that when I asked her to chose a song off OUT THERE to build a setlist around, she went with Balloon Pop – we take a walk through that track together, and she would pair it with something(s) from Mr. Chick Corea. This show is going to be one that people who are there will pull up from the memory banks when a good time reminder is needed.
