, is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese classical violist

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

. She studied violin at Kunitachi College of Music

Kunitachi College of Music

The is a private music school in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1926 as the Tokyo Conservatory of Music.It is located at Kashiwa-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo.-Notable alumni:*Masamichi Amano, composer*Ahn Eak-tai, composer and conductor...

 in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. In 1978, she went to study with violist Nobuko Imai

Nobuko Imai

, is a Japanese classical violist with an extensive career as soloist and chamber musician. Since 1988 she plays an Andrea Guarneri of 1690.-Biography:...

 at the Royal Northern College of Music

Royal Northern College of Music

The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...

 in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. She was First Prize Winner at the 17th International Music Competition Budapest – Viola Competition.

Inoue has served as principal violist for several orchestras, and has given recital and chamber music performances with such artists as Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.-Biography:Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather,...

 and Jean-Jacques Kantorow

Jean-Jacques Kantorow

Jean-Jacques Kantorow is a French violin virtuoso and conductor.-Biography:Kantorow was born in Cannes, France. From the age of 13 he studied at the Paris Conservatoire with René Benedetti, and in 1960 won the first violin prize...

.

Currently she is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music

Royal Academy of Music

The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...

 and gives viola masterclasses throughout Europe and Japan.

Yuko Inoue plays a viola by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume dated 1852.

Selected discography

• Romanze: The Romantic Viola (2000), Black Box BBM1034
• Reynaldo Hahn
  Reynaldo Hahn
  Reynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic and diarist. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie....
  
  : Chamber Music (2003), Hyperion CDA67391 – Soliloque et forlane for Viola and Piano
• John Hawkins: Voices from the Sea (2003), Meridian CDE84496 – Gestures and Shadows
• J.S. Bach: Sonatas for Viola da Gamba (2006), Quartz QTZR2050
• Mozart: String Quintets K174 & K515, with The Chilingirian Quartet, (2007), CRD 3521
• Mozart: String Quintets K516 & K406, with The Chilingirian Quartet, (2007), CRD 3522