



Sayaka Shoji
Federico Hernandez
Tània Fogàs i Lomas
Yukiko Shishikura
“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)
Sayaka Shoji has become internationally recognised for her unique artistic versatility and detailed approach to her chosen repertoire. Her remarkable insight into musical languages comes from her mix of European and Japanese backgrounds. Born in Tokyo, Shoji moved to Siena, Italy when she was three. She studied at Accademia Musicale Chigiana and Cologne’s Musikhochschule and made her European debut with Lucerne Festival Strings and Rudolf Baumgartner at the Lucerne Festival and then at the Musikverein, Vienna at the age of fourteen.
Since winning first prize at the Paganini Competition in 1999, Sayaka Shoji has been supported by leading conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Semyon Bychkov, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov to name a few. She has also worked with renowned orchestras including Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Los Angeles and New York philharmonics, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, The Mariinsky Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra.

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Recent highlights include five concerts for the opening of the 2022/23 season with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra/Shani, an Italian tour with Philharmonia Orchestra/Matias-Rouvali, and a collaboration with dancer/choreographer Saburo Teshigawara performing Bach and Bartok’s solo works at the Philharmonie de Paris. She also had a return to NHK Symphony Orchestra/Noseda, Brussells Philharmonic/Ono, and an extensive recital tour in Japan with Gianluca Cascioli.
In the upcoming season, Shoji will return to Israel for concerts with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra/Shani and they will collaborate again for the Japan tour. She will also make debut concerts with hr-Sinfonieorchester/Carydis, Hamburger Symphoniker/Sloane, BBC Symphony Orchestra/Wong and Orchestre de chambre de Genève/Waldman. In autumn, she will tour Japan with Modigliani Quartet and Benjamin Grosvenor for a unique chamber recital program which includes a play written and directed by Oriza Hiraza.
Alongside her usual concert activities, Shoji has created an experimental visual-music project, ‘Synesthesia’ in 2007, and exposed oil-paintings and video-art works. Her first video work (Shostakovich Prelude coll. with P.Frament) was chosen in a group exposition ‘Au-delà de mes rêves’ in 2014 among the most renown artists such as Y.Kusama, S.Calle, R.Longo. Shoji has also collaborated with Tadao Ando, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Saburo Teshigawara in numerous occasions.
A prolific recording artist, Shoji has released eleven albums on Deutsche Grammophon including Prokofiev, Sibelius and Beethoven violin concertos with St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov, and previous recordings include a recital album with Menahem Presseler. In autumn 2022, she released a new album with longtime collaborator, Gianluca Casiocli which includes Mozart’s violin sonatas, following her previous album of complete Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin.
Shoji won the Mainichi Art Award in 2016, one of Japan’s most prestigious awards, presented to those who have had a significant influence on the arts. In 2012, she was named one of The 100 Most Influential People for Japan in future by Nikkei Business.
Sayaka Shoji plays a Stradivarius ‘Recamier’ c.1729 kindly loaned to her by Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry Ltd.
HarrisonParrott exclusively represents Sayaka Shoji throughout the world except in France: Agence Diane du Saillant, and Italy: Cesare Venturi Music Management.
“Henri Dutilleux’s Arbre des Songes was performed by Japanese violinist, Sayaka Shoji, whose strong aura and mystery, while alternating strength and letting go on her instrument, stunned the astounded audience.”
“Her triumphant smile during the final pages seemed to show she knew full well that she had just laid claim to one of the towering peaks of the repertory in one of the most memorable Cleveland debuts in years.”
“…midway through the first movement, Allegro non troppo, she had found her footing, and the cadenza was masterful, a real dialogue for one. Shoji’s tone continued to bloom in the Adagio, which she imbued with appropriate anguish, complicating a movement that’s sometimes glossed over as straightforwardly beautiful. Brahms’ music is rife with strange dissonances, and these require a certain confidence to pull off.”
“This was a compelling performance, Shoji soon into her groove and leading with faultless intonation in the high passages of the slow movement, carrying beautifully into the wide open spaces of the hall. She was aided by the horns and trombones of the RPO, positioned along the back of the orchestra, the punctuation of harp and celesta adding glitter to the edge of the sound.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The Sibelius concertos are played with a crisp and articulated timbre that evokes the atmosphere of Finland.”
“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.”
“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.”
“She allowed the music to speak for itself and wisely focused instead on technical matters, on tone, articulation, and dynamics.”
“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”
“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.”
“Her performance here revealed impeccable intonation and an ability to sculpt phrases with considerable eloquence.”
“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.”