Noriko Ueda
Noriko Ueda is a Japanese jazz bassist, composer, and arranger originally from Hyogo. She began studying piano at age four and electric bass at sixteen before switching to upright bass to pursue jazz, later studying jazz composition at Berklee College of Music and moving to New York City to build her career as a performer, composer, and arranger. She tours internationally with the group Artemis, which was named DownBeat’s Jazz Group of the Year for three consecutive years, and their 2025 album Arboresque topped the JazzWeek national radio chart and was featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts.
Ueda has performed with the Ted Rosenthal Trio for over twenty years, completing more than ten tours in Japan, and their album Out of This World reached number one on national jazz radio charts. Her own leader album Debut was released on Terashima Records in 2015. She is a longtime member of the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and an active member of the Birdland Big Band, appearing at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Village Vanguard. She received BMI’s Charlie Parker Award for big band composition and has been on the faculty of SUNY Purchase College since 2022.