Live Review : HIROMI – The Piano Quintet featuring PUBLIQuartet at the Perth International Jazz Festival
A Headline Event of the 2025 Perth International Jazz Festival (PIJF)
The Octagon Theatre, University of Western Australia, Friday 24 October 2025
By Angela Frodsham
There was musical magic last Friday evening at UWA’s Octagon Theatre, when “genre-defying” Japanese pianist and composer Hiromi Uehara captivated an audience of all ages. The Grammy Award–winning pianist is known globally for her virtuoso style, energy and experimental approach. Hiromi’s incredible technical prowess and creative compositional abilities fuse classical, jazz, rock and pop genres. Supporting her was the sublime New York-based classical chamber music ensemble PUBLIQuartet, equally driven to improvise and leap across musical genres. Together, these five incredibly talented and like-minded musicians delivered a breathtaking night of music, pushing frontiers of genre and instrument. A headline act for the Perth International Jazz Festival (PIJF), the performance more than fulfilled PIJF’s founder and jazz pianist, Associate Professor Graham Wood’s objective of celebrating and promoting jazz.
Born in Hamamatsu, Hiromi has played piano since aged six. She fell in love with jazz when her classical piano teacher introduced her to Erroll Garner and Oscar Peterson. To Hiromi, “hearing jazz… was like seeing the keys smiling and dancing” and made her want to move. She started improvising in blending jazz and classical, playing shows abroad as a teenager. Her first album Another Mind was releasedeven before she graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music. An invitation to improvise on stage with American jazz piano icon Chick Corea; 12 albums; and multiple awards followed, including a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
Hiromi is in between US and European tours with her high-energy jazz-funk ensemble Sonicwonder. This week she lost long-time musical collaborator with the passing of American bass guitarist Anthony Jackson. Jackson was part of Hiromi’s Trio Project (piano, bass and drums). Their 2016 album Spark reached number one on the US Billboard Jazz Album Charts.
The musicians were enthusiastically welcomed on stage for Hiromi’s first ever Perth performance. Hiromi looked fabulous in an elegant red dress, black leggings and sneakers. Being married to cult Japanese fashion designer Mihara Yasuhiro makes stage wardrobe a breeze for Hiromi. Yasuhiro designed Hiromi’s dress for her appearance at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Her trademark tousled ‘updo’ hair secured with a blingy clip, Hiromi launched straight into the aptly named “Jumpstart”, a work from her 12th studio album in 2021, Silver Lining Suite. This allowed brilliant cellist Hamilton Berry to transform his instrument into a jazz double bass, plucking at the strings in chasing Hiromi’s exuberant piano.
Hiromi told her audience she hadn’t yet seen much of Perth, quipping she’d seen a “a few ducks, no quokkas”. She introduced her four-movement work “the Silver Lining Suite”, composed to recount her emotional journey through COVID in Tokyo. A complex musical suite for a quintet, it flowed from her live-streaming solo performances at Tokyo’s Blue Note Jazz Club which sparked her idea of performing with strings.
The first movement “Isolation” set the scene with agitated strings giving way to Hiromi’s jazz improvisation, swelling gradually into a dramatic crescendo of strings and piano before morphing into “the Unknown”. A left-hand rolling bass set an ominous tone of uncertainty and fear, persisting against Hiromi’s jazz improvisation in the right-hand treble. Mirroring the ebb and flow of human emotions, Hiromi’s swirling music moved through classically smooth strings, powerful octave chords and delicate pizzicato violins. Rivetting performances from first and second violinists Jannina Norpoth and Fung Chern Hwei followed. The quartet’s innovatively percussive use of their string instruments built up an infectious beat to accompany Hiromi’s piano. “Drifters” then floated in, evoking the thoughts of uncertainty during COVID.
Flamboyant, natural Hiromi is visually mesmerizing. She leans into the piano to lovingly stroke the keys or strike them with her fist. She jumps up to put one knee on the stool while her right leg swings or her foot taps. She moves constantly, even when gently vocalising. Playing a single note repetitively, she has the audience enthralled. Playing with the audience, her smile locks them in her gaze as she tinkers on the piano in humorous ways, encouraging everyone to join her in the moment.
Even when expressing emotional turmoil, Hiromi’s music is sonically pleasing. The PUBLIQuartet virtuosos clearly enjoy performing and interpreting her work. Hamilton Berry’s classically inspired solo at the end of “Drifters” was remarkable. It led into the suite’s final movement, “Fortitude,” with its rhythmic, ascending bass chords recalling the resilience needed to overcome the challenges of COVID. “Fortitude” also sees Hiromi jump up to tap a beat on top of the piano to accompany a foot-stomping string arrangement. The consummate skill of the PUBLIQuartet strings is phenomenal, with Jannina Norpoth’s amazing first violin and Hiromi’s full keyboard piano explorations bringing the “Silver Lining Suite” to a resounding end.
Allowing the audience to catch their breath, Hiromi delivered a delicate rendition of the Beatle’s “Blackbird” or as she said “Blackbird…almost… kind of”. While her left-hand bass delivered the familiar tune, she wondrously improvised with her right-hand treble. Next came the rare treat of PUBLIQuartet’s “Hip Hop Etude in C Sharp Minor”, a work soon to be released by this Grammy nominated quartet. Hiromi’s “11:49PM” also from the Silver Suite album followed on, expressing her hope during COVID that one day she might again play to a live audience. Featuring swoony and Rachmaninoff-esque passages alongside playful jazz improvisation, Hiromi surprised the audience by standing up, reaching her arm into the piano to muffle the strings in playing a drum beat like low note.
Hiromi and PUBLIQuartet then left the stage, but insistent applause made an encore inevitable. Hiromi launched into the rollicking “Ribera Del Duero”, written in homage to her favourite Spanish wine. PUBLIQuartet came back to join in the fun, and this Spanish folk genre inspired romp gave each musician the chance by turn to strut their stuff, pushing their instruments to extremes. First Hamilton Berry with an astonishing cello display, then Nicholas Revel stunned the audience with his masterful viola. The audience was fully on board for the ride, clapping along in encouragement as each quintet member took to the front of stage to improvise, spurring the musicians to even greater heights. All the time, Hiromi looked on in admiration while delivering her own incredible whirlwind of music, and with a shout of “hey” it was the end of a truly extraordinary musicl odyssey.
Bouquets of flowers were brought for Hiromi, who together with PUBLIQuartet took front of stage to receive appreciation from an audience who rose in a rapturous standing ovation to acknowledge stupendous world class musicianship. Hiromi happily filmed on her phone a seemingly endless outpouring of recognition, having reminded us of music’s ability to express emotions as a shared experience, and inspiring us to live each day with verve and curiosity.
Hiromi Official YouTube Channel Spotify
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Fans Corner:
Setsu Masuda. Pianist Composer, Perth. (You can find Setsu on Spotify)
We were lucky to see Hiromi in Perth as it’s impossible to get tickets for Hiromi’s gigs in Japan. She was extraordinary and so much fun to watch. Her limbs were flying everywhere as if she was dancing with the piano. She is small but looked even bigger than the YAMAHA concert grand piano on stage.
Originally a classically trained pianist, she has a great command of the piano. Extremely fast fingers, endless running passages, in octaves, all of these were so precise, never missing notes and crystal clear! She slapped and sometimes hit the keys with a fist. Ouch! I felt a little bit sorry for the piano, but never mind, it brought out such energy that the audience just loved it.
I couldn’t tell when she was improvising and when she wasn’t. She is so free and creative. I’m sure every time she performs it is a different story, which reminds me of the Japanese saying ‘Ichigo Ichi-e’, which means ‘One time, one meeting’. It’s a reminder to give your full attention and sincerity to each moment, as it will never be repeated.
Ellen Frodsham, Perth.
I was mesmerized by the different and unexpected ways the musicians used their instruments, just so impressive.
I was also fascinated with how Hiromi used her whole body to express herself – you don’t necessarily expect piano and string recitals to be visual spectacles, but tonight there was just so much to see!
Thanks to the Perth International Jazz Festival who brought Hiromi and PUBLIQuartet to Perth. Please check out their program for the rest of the Festival, which runs until Sunday 2 November 2025. https://perthjazzfest.com/print-programs-and-timetable/
As part of her Australian Tour 2025 with PUBLIQuartet, Hiromi has played for the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival, and after her show in Perth headed back over east for Melbourne International Jazz Festival and Oz Asia Festival in Adelaide.
Sheldon Ang Media would like to thank Perth International Jazz Festival and Hiromi and PUBLIQuartet for the media accreditation
Hiromi: The Piano Quintet Playlist:
Jumpstart (from 2021 album Silver Lining Suite)
Silver Lining Suite in four movements (from 2021 album Silver Lining Suite)
- Isolation
- The Unknown
- Drifters
- Fortitude
Blackbird (Beatles cover)
Hip Hop Etude in C Sharp Minor (forthcoming release by PUBLIQuartet)
11.49PM (from 2021 album Silver Lining Suite)
Encore:
Ribera Del Duero
ENDS
About the Writer
Angela Frodsham is a researcher and writer with special interests in music and history. An early career in government economic development and transport policy followed a Bachelor of Economics (UWA) majoring in the Japanese language. This year Angela graduated from UWA with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Classics and Ancient history, and enjoys writing on times past. Angela loves all types of music having trained as a pianist, and regularly attends live music shows with friends and family.
Sheldon Ang Media (est. May 2022) has been accredited to over 200 of the hottest acts including Taylor Swift (ERAS Tour in Sydney), Coldplay (Perth), Backstreet Boys, KISS, Iron Maiden, RHCP, P!NK with reviews shared by the likes of Belinda Carlisle, Suzi Quatro, Roxette, Tina Arena, UB40, Delta Goodrem, Leo Sayer and Tina Arena on social media. He has interviewed rockers Ace Frehley (KISS), John Steel (The Animals), Frank Ferrer (Guns N Roses), Phil X (Bon Jovi), Andrew Farris (INXS), plus over 70 artists. He’s also a contributor on Triple M Radio as a music journalist.
