Masuko Ushioda

Masuko Ushioda (Shenyang, April 4, 1942 - Boston, May 28, 2013) was a Japanese violinist. She taught at the New England Conservatory from 1974 to 2013.

Life

Ushioda was born in 1942 in Shenyang, Manchuria. She was a graduate of the Toho Gakuen School of Music where she practiced violin under conducting of Hideo Saito. When she turned 18, she went to Saint Petersburg, where she was under guidance of Mikhail Weiman at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and then took violin lessons with Joseph Szigeti in Switzerland.^[1][2][3]

Competitions and recordings

At the age of 15 she won the first prize at the national Mainichi Competition in Tokyo, and in 1963 she won Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. In 1966 became a recipient of the silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Her records were released by Angel, Toshiba and Melodiya labels.^[1]

Personal life

While playing at the Tanglewood Music Festival she met Laurence Lesser, to whom she was married five years later. After they got married though, she was always away for half a year with the Saito Kinen Orchestra. When she didn't have any festivals to attend she and her husband would travel to Egypt and ride in a boat on the Nile. They also enjoy discussing food, which was more important than music-related topic. Having learnt her cooking skills, her daughter Erika Lesser became an Executive Director at Slow Food.^[2]

References