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| Violin |
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| Sayaka Shoji |
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Sayaka Shoji, Violin |
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| Photo© Kishin Shinoyama |
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When Sayaka Shoji performed at the Lucerne Festival and the Musikverein, Vienna with the Festival Strings Lucerne and Rudolph Baumgartner in 1997, at only fourteen years old, she was already the winner of several international competitions and a familiar figure on the stages of her native Japan.
Since winning the 1999 Paganini Competition, the first Japanese and youngest artist to do so, she is regularly invited to perform with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors such as Askhenazy, Dutoit, Sawallisch, Marriner, Chailly, Chung, Zukerman, Inbal, Bertini, Spivakov, Berio and Bashmet, with orchestras including the NHK Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Bayern State, Philharmonia, WDR Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “Giuseppe Verdi”, Orchestra Sinfonica dell ‘Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo and Bergen Philharmonic.
After a brilliant Japan tour with Temirkanov and the St Petersburg Philharmonic in 2001, the maestro immediately re-invited her to replace the soloist on the Baltimore Symphon’s European tour two weeks later, confirming a remarkable musical relationship and the beginning of numerous collaborations.
In 2002, she appeared at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Berlin Philharmonic/Mariss Jansons and at the “Isaac Stern Memorial Concert” in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra/Mehta. In January 2003, she made her U.S. debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic/Mehta. In February 2004, she was soloist on the LSO’s 100th Anniversary Asia tour with Sir Colin Davis. 2004 saw her New York debut with NY Philharmonic/Maazel, immediately followed by a Japan tour. In November, she embarked on a highly successful European tour with WDR Symphony Orchestra/Bychkov, taking her to such prestigious halls as Royal Festival Hall in London, Munchen Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus.
As well as a busy schedule of concerto performances, Sayaka is invited
to festivals such as Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Evian Festival, the Estate
Musicale del Garda, the Fêtes Musicales en Touraine, the Folle Journée
in Nantes and Tokyo, where she performs recitals and chamber music with
colleagues such as Vadim Repin, Steven Isserlis, Mikhail Pletnev, Lang
Lang, Itamar Golan, Yefim Bronfman, and, in summer 2006, with Renaud and
Gautier Capuçon, Nicholas Angelich, Louis Lortie, Tatiana Vassiljeva.
Recent engagements have included an extensive Asian tour with Tokyo Philharmonic/Chung
in Autumn 2005 (Tchaikovsky and Brahms), followed by recitals with Itamar
Golan and concerts with NDR Symphony Orchestra/Alan Gilbert (Brahms). 2006
saw further collaborations with Temirkanov in St. Petersburg (Khachaturian),
with James Judd and the Baltimore Symphony, with Jonathan Nott and the
Bamberg Symphony (Prokofiev n° 2), European and South American tours
with the WDR Symphony and Bychkov (Glazunov).
In July 2006, she played the Shostakovich A minor concerto with the Tokyo
Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra before performing Tchaikovsky with the
Israel Philharmonic and the 2006/07 season begins with concerts in Tokyo
with Norrington/NHK (Beethoven) and a gala concert with Kurt Masur for
his Mendelssohn foundation, followed by a European tour with Temirkanov/Saint
Petersburg Philharmonic (Prokofiev) and an extensive tour with Pappano/Santa
Cecilia (Paganini). Sayaka will spend the summer in the Swiss Alps, having
been re-invited to give recitals and do chamber music at the Verbier Festival
and will make her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in March
2008 at the invitation of Paavo Järvi
Sayaka records for Deutsche Grammophon. Her debut CD with Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic featuring works by Paganini, Chausson and Waxman, was released in 2000 and followed by a live recording of her September 2001 debut recital at the Auditorium du Louvre and, in 2003, a disc of Prokofiev and Shostakovich works, both CDs with Itamar Golan. In October 2005, she recorded the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Chung.
Her teachers have included Uto Ughi and Riccardo Brengola (chamber music)
at Sienna’s Accademia Musicale Chigiana in 1995, and Shlomo Mintz while
on a scholarship grant from Israel. Since 1998, she has studied with Prof.
Zakhar Bron at the Hochschle Für Musik Köln and, after graduating
in 2004, decided to make Europe her permanent base.
Sayaka performs on the "Joachim" Stradivarius (1715) generously provided by the Nippon Music Foundation.
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Sayaka Shoji Official Website
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