Sayaka Shoji

Sayaka Shoji's prodigious talents were first noticed when she gave her first performance of a Mozart violin concerto, at the age of ten. Born in Tokyo in 1983, Sayaka is already the winner of numerous competitions and rose to international attention when in 1999 she became the first Japanese violinist to win first prize at the prestigious Paganini International Violin Competition, in Genova, Italy. Known for her deep musicality, fierce curiosity and her love for simplicity and directness, she has appeared around the world with leading orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian State Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Italy's RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Zubin Mehta has been a frequent music partner to Sayaka, alongside other conductors, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Luciano Berio, Mariss Jansons and Pinchas Zukerman. Sayaka has made records with Deutsche Grammophon and currently lives in Paris. She appears courtesy of Universal Music Japan and performs on the 1715 'Joachim' Stradivarius, generously provided by the Nippon Music Foundation.