Sayaka Shoji

Violin

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“Shoji isn’t merely a superb technician, she’s a deeply engaging performer. Her richly resonant, spirited sound that is impressive and so, too, is the poetic delicacy of her phrasing.”
(Gramophone)

Educated in Siena at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and Cologne at the Hochschule für Musik Köln under Zakhar Bron, the Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji has been described by Gramophone magazine as “a formidable musician, able to draw on huge reserves of stamina and the unflinching equal of anything thrown at her.”

Shoji was the youngest and first Japanese violinist to win the Paganini Competition in Genoa in 1999 and since then has established strong connections with world renowned conductors including; Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mariss Jansons, Paavo Järvi, Osmo Vänska and Sir Antonio Pappano. The 2018/19 season will again see Sayaka join the SPPO and Temirkanov for concerts in Rome, Udine, Bari and Milan playing Tchaikovsky’ Violin Concerto as well as a tour in Japan. She will make debuts with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn with Dirk Kaftan. Sayaka will work with Krzysztof Penderecki performing his concerto with Orchestra Metropolitana de Lisboa.

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

A prolific recording artist, the violinist has recorded a number of albums for Deutsche Grammophon, including the full violin sonatas by Beethoven, and more recently with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Yuri Temirkanov concertos by Sibelius and Beethoven. With Yutaka Sado and the Tonkunstler Orchester, Shoji has recently released a live disc of Bernstein’s Serenade recorded in the Musikverein in Vienna. Other live recordings include sonatas by Mozart, Schubert and Brahms recorded live with Menahem Pressler in April 2014.

In a change to her usual performance practice, Sayaka has also created an experimental visual art project, ‘Synesthesia’ where she mixes music and colours with the aim to transform her musical perception into different forms.

Sayaka plays a 1729 Recamier Stradivarius which is kindly loaned to her by Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry Ltd.

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

“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)