Michiaki Ueno’s eloquent performance and charisma spellbind the audience. He has been praised for his unique yet natural musicality and superlative technique.

In 2007, at the age of eleven, he gave his first concerto performance at the prestigious Suntory Hall, playing the Édouard Lalo Cello Concerto. This later led to his success in becoming the first Japanese to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians held in 2009 at the age of thirteen. A year later, he won the first prize in the Romanian International Music Competition along with the Romanian Embassy Prize and the Romanian Radio Culture Prize. In 2014, he won the first prize in the International Johannes Brahms Competition. His most recent title was the first prize in the Geneva International Music Competition (2021) along with three special awards, including the Young Audience Prize.

As a soloist, he has performed with numerous orchestras such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and New Japan Philharmonic among many other orchestras. As a chamber musician, he has shared the stage with artists including Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Jean-Guihen Queryas, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and Akiko Suwanai. He has been invited to Music Festivals around the world such as the La Folle Journee de Nantes, Montpellier Music Festival, Mosel Musikfestival, Pacific Music Festival, and the International Music Festival Nippon.

Michiaki has received numerous awards such as the Idemitsu Music Award (2022), the Hotel Okura Music Award (2023), and the Hideo Saito Memorial Award (2023) as a promising rising star. He has been generously supported by the Japan Federation of Musicians, Rohm Music Foundation, Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation, Dr. Sieghardt Rometsch Stiftung, and Dr. Carl Dörken Stiftung. Michiaki plays a P. A. Testore cello on loan from the Munetsugu Collection.