She resented the endless rules about notes and formulas because she just wanted to be able to feel and play the music.
At the age of 12, Uchida and her family moved to Vienna, Austria, where her father was a member of the Japanese diplomatic mission. It was in Vienna that Uchida's eagerness for Western music could be satiated. Though the culture was accessible to her, she still did not seem to find what she was searching for musically. While she learned German and began her musical studies in the Viennese school of music under Richard Hauser at the Vienna Academy of Music, she still felt restricted by her instructors. As she related to the New York Times, it was "full of fixed ideas. There are masses of do's and don'ts, and 'music should be played this way.' So I had to get out of that."
London Gave Uchida Her Freedom
Once she came to this realization, Uchida moved to London and ended her formal education at age 22. Enticed by London's independent musical atmosphere, it was there that English became her third "first" language and where she still makes her home.
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