Hiromi Uehara

“When there are no lyrics, people can picture what they want. It's a reflection of where they are in their lives. Music becomes a mirror.”

“I sound like a crazy person... but I feel when a piano is happy, and I feel when they find that moment to be alive. I want them to remember me.”

“'The Sound of Music' is one of my favourite old musical films.”

“I'm always interested in writing. I keep music in journals on an everyday basis. I'm always looking for ideas that can be music.”

“I don't really believe in genres. I don't want people to have any preconceptions about me. I want the first impression to be the music.”

“Some people dig jazz, some people dig classical music, some people dig rock. Everyone is so concerned about who they like. They always say, 'This guy is the best,' 'No, this guy is the best.' But I think everyone is great. I really don't have barriers to any type of music. I could listen to everything from metal to classical music to anything else.”

“When you limit the word 'jazz' to one period of history, for the people who love that period, then maybe it can be dead because nobody plays like that anymore. But jazz is progressive music; it always has to progress, and musicians always have to find new landscapes and new ways to speak out, so of course it's always changing.”

“I don't want to put a name on my music. Other people can put a name on what I do. It's just the union of what I've been listening to and what I've been learning. It has some elements of classical music, it has some rock, it has some jazz, but I don't want to give it a name.”

“The first time I listened to jazz was when I was 8.”

“I feel so at home on the stage, and I love making people happy with my music. Whatever I have to go through to make that happen and get that sunshine is worth it.”

“I always have a will to write. It's organic to me.”

“I'm hungry to learn, so I always have my big ears open fully, ready to learn every single minute when I play.”

“At a show, I'll look out from the stage and see a woman with a pearl necklace next to a guy in a Grateful Dead T-shirt next to a young kid with his mom. It's fun to see them all together.”

“I'm asked so many times why I think there aren't more female instrumentalists in jazz. But I never think about it. And I don't think it's been any harder for me to be taken seriously. The music speaks for itself.”

“For me, the keyboard is always an additional sound to the piano. Piano is the main instrument; I can't go anywhere without acoustic piano. It's been my best friend since I was 6 years old.”

“When I play music, I realize that it filters emotions. I believe that peoples' voices are expressed in their emotions, and I try to do the same with my music.”

“You shouldn't think about technique when you play. You have to be you. It cannot be about, 'I can play this, and I can show you that.'”