Tomoharu Ushida

Ushida was born in Fukushima Prefecture.^[3][4] He moved to Shanghai with his family soon after he was born, due to his father's business. He came back to Japan when he enrolled in primary school in Aichi Prefecture.^[5]

Ushida studied at the Moscow Conservatory under the supervision of Yuri Slesarev^[6] and Alexander Vershinin.^[7] He released his debut album Liebesträume from Universal Classics in 2012, at the age of 12, as the youngest Japanese classical pianist.^[8]

Ushida composed the theme music of exhibition "Liechtenstein" held at the New National Art Center in Tokyo and performed in the presence of former Crown Prince (now His Majesty the Emperor) of Japan in 2012.^[9][10]

In 2014, Ushida performed for the first time with overseas artists, the Wiener Kammer Orchestra (conducted by Stefan Vlader). In 2015 and 2019, he performed with the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev,^[11][12] and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yatsek Kaspsik in 2018.^[13]

Ushida won the second prize in the 10th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 2018.

Ushida participated in the 21st Leeds International Piano Competition in 2024 and reached the semi-finals.^[14] He also won the Medici.tv Audience Prize.^[15]

• 2011 – XII International Chopin Piano Competition in ASIA – Concert B Division – First Prize (youngest in the history of the category)^[16]
• 2012 – XIII International Chopin Piano Competition in ASIA – Concert C Division – First Prize (youngest in the history of the category)^[17]
• 2012 – XVI Hamamatsu International Piano Academy Competition – First Prize (youngest in the history of the competition)^[18]
• 2018 – X Hamamatsu International Piano Competition – Second Prize, Audience Award, Award from President of Warsaw, Poland^[19]
• 2019 – 29th Idemitsu Music Awards^[20][21]