Sayaka Shoji

Violin

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“Shoji’s unembellished and direct, partly soft-grained, and partly determined bowing, was immaculately integrated with the Philharmonia.”
(5*, Young Jin-Hur, Bachtrack, November 2019)

Japanese violinist, Sayaka Shoji has become internationally recognised for her musicianship, brilliant technique and enduring strength on the concert platform and has developed an extensive repertoire including newly commissioned works as well as masterworks by Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Sibelius and Shostakovich.

In her early career she established collaborations with the likes of Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons and Sir Colin Davis and has performed with leading conductors including Yuri Temirkanov, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, Gianandrea Noseda and Paavo Järvi. Shoji has worked with renowned orchestras including the Israel Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, London Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Czech Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, The Mariinsky Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as giving festival appearances in Lucerne, Verbier and for Prague Spring Festival.

Highlights in the 2020/21 season include recital tours with pianist, Víkingur Ólafsson across Europe and Japan as well as collaborations with Saburo Teshigawara on solo works by Bach and Bartok at Philharmonie de Paris. She is regularly reinvited by the Philharmonia Orchestra and St Petersburg Philharmonic and further ahead will make a return to the Wigmore Hall. Alongside her concert activities, Shoji will premiere her experimental video project, ‘Synesthesia’; the transformation of her internal musical image into a visible form of expression. The product of several years work, Shoji will give a live performance of the project in Paris this autumn.

Sayaka Shoji: Tchaikovsky (Klaus Mäkelä) © Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Sayaka Shoji: Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.1 (Paavo Järvi) © Estonian Festival Orchestra

“The lengthy first movement with its complex and demanding cadenza was breathtakingly performed… [she] received, as was to be expected, rapturous and prolonged applause. Her delivery throughout was astonishing in that she somehow made the sound of this comparatively small instrument fill the entire hall with its warmth and beauty.”

(Cambridge Independent, December 2019)

“The highlight of the evening was Brahms’ Violin Concerto… Shoji’s unembellished and direct, party soft-grained, and partly determined bowing, was immaculately integrated with the Philharmonia… Here was a case where thoroughly crafted visions of artistries formed a formidable result.”

(Bachtrack, November 2019, 5 stars)

“Shoji’s violin had silky beautiful tunes and presented deep and smooth expressions. She understood the composer’s intention and made a variety of expressions which added sharpness to the piece. Her performance was attractive and like a long novel as it was so rich and varied in content.”

(Ongakunotomo, June 2019)

“His Violin Concerto No. 3, ‘Still’, takes meditation as its main metaphor. Shoji, who has previously performed concertos by Brahms and Tchaikovsky with CityMusic, at various points played havoc-ridden ascending scales, calm Baroque-quoting trilling melodies, a pained and craggy climactic line that would put Berg to shame, and what might be the longest open-G-string note in the repertoire.”

(Cleveland Classical, March 2019)

“Shoji brings un-showy musicianship, a sense of structure and architecture, pleasing tone and flawless intonation to the performance of the Beethoven Concerto. It’s evident that she has the composer’s music in her blood.”

(Music Web International, October 2018)

“The Sibelius concertos are played with a crisp and articulated timbre that evokes the atmosphere of Finland.”

(Hisashi Kiyooka, The Japan Times, October 2018)

“Wednesday’s soloist in the concerto was Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji, who in 1999 became the youngest winner and first Japanese to capture the Paganini Competition. Playing a 1729 Stradivarius, she displayed a tone that was luxurious in the lower registers, especially at the beginning, and sweet as she ascended to the upper reaches in the second movement. She sailed effortlessly through the third movement’s pyrotechnics and was joined throughout by sympathetic accompaniment from Temirkanov and Co.”

(Robert D. Thomas, March 2017, The Orange County Register)

“Soloist Sayaka Shoji (first prize-winner at the 1999 Paganini Competition) demonstrated admirable technical assurance and total commitment to the cause, playing as if she truly loved the music.”

(Robert Markow, backtrack, November 2016)

“She allowed the music to speak for itself and wisely focused instead on technical matters, on tone, articulation, and dynamics.”

(Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer, October 2016)

“Shoji and Cascioli certainly step up to the mark with the mighty proportions and virtuosic demands of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 12, No. 3”

(Stephen Greenbank / Music Web International)

“The first Japanese and youngest-ever winner of the Paganini Competition in 1999 has ample technical ability, but it was her beautifully crafted playing that truly impressed. Shoji treated her listeners to amazing permutations of articulation, tone colour, dynamics and phrasing, while keeping everything coherent and un-forced.”

(The Straits Times, October 2016)

“Her performance here revealed impeccable intonation and an ability to sculpt phrases with considerable eloquence.”

(Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun, February 2014)

“Sayaka Shoji is not big, but she certainly has a powerful sound. This was impressive, muscular playing, the bow biting into the string up near the bridge, a hair’s breadth away from ponticello. She has a gorgeous tone, is passionate and expressive, and she takes risks, playing with a rubato that is never excessive and constantly aids the shaping of the music and its direction. She could be ravishingly soft as well, although she ignored Tchaikovsky’s request for a mute in the Canzonetta. The finale was a devil-take-the-hindmost affair, full of dash and colour, with the air of a caprice and a hint of recklessness. This was a proper, thrilling, live event.”

(Tim Homfray, The Strad, October 2013)