Sayaka Shoji
Sayaka Shoji in Strasbourg, February 2014.
Sayaka Shoji (庄司 紗矢香 Shōji Sayaka?, born 30 January 1983) is a Japanese classical violinist. She is the first Japanese and youngest winner (after Lenuta Ciulei) at the Paganini Competition in Genoa in 1999.
She was born into an artistic family (her mother is a painter, grandmother is a poet) and spent her childhood in Siena, Italy. She studied at Hochschule für Musik Köln under Zakhar Bron and graduated in 2004. Her other teachers have included Sashko Gawrillow, Uto Ughi and Shlomo Mintz.
Zubin Mehta has been her strong supporter. When Shoji auditioned for him in 2000, he immediately changed his schedule in order to make her first recording with the Israel Philharmonic possible in the following month, then invited her to perform with Bavarian State Opera and Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Since then many prominent orchestras have invited Shoji, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Lorin Maazel, Yuri Temirkanov, Myung-whun Chung and Semyon Bychkov.
Discography
- Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 / Chausson Poėme / Waxman Carmen Fantasy / Milstein Paganiniana
- The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Conducted by Zubin Mehta
- July 2000, Deutsche Grammophon
- Louvre Recital
- Itamar Golan, Piano
- September 2001, Deutsche Grammophon
- Itamar Golan, Piano
- December 2003, Deutsche Grammophon
- Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Conducted by Myung-Whun Chung
- October 2005, Deutsche Grammophon
- Beethoven Sonata 2&9
- Gianluca Cascioli, Piano
- 2010 Deutsche Grammophon
- Bach & Reger Solo Works
- 2011 Mirare
Sayaka Shoji records with Deutsche Grammophon and performs on the 1729 “Recamier” Stradivarius on loan from Ryuzo Ueno, Honorary Chairman, Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry, Ltd.
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