Although her parents probably never envisioned their daughter becoming one of the most important pianists of her generation, her gift was instantly recognizable from early on. Her father would proudly ask her to play for anyone who would listen. But as she told a group of students at Johns Hopkins once, "My parents wanted me to be an ordinary Japanese housewife. They gave me piano lessons so that I could make them proud...." Little did they know that she would go on to become one of the great treasures of current classical music and considered one of the best interpreters of Mozart.
Uchida was an inquisitive youth with questions not only about her music but also about life in general. Her curiosity remained unfulfilled while living in Japan. In addition, the Japanese approach to teaching also seemed stifling to Uchida. "There is a tradition in Japanese society that one is not to question," she explained to the New York Times. The customary technique to music education in Japan focused more on the mechanical aspect of training, but Uchida sensed the need for a more interpretive training. Without the background of the Western music tradition, Japanese teachers taught the pure mechanics of the instrument instead of its musicality.
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