- Sayaka Shoji
is a Japanese classical
violinist . She is the first Japanese and youngest winner at thePaganini Competition inGenoa 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 underZakhar Bron and graduated in 2004. Her other teachers have includedSashko Gawrillow ,Uto Ughi andShlomo Mintz .Zubin Mehta has been her strong supporter. When Ms. Shoji auditioned for him in 2000, he immediately changed his schedule in order to make her first recording with theIsrael Philharmonic possible in the following month, then invited her to perform withBavarian State Opera andLos Angeles Philharmonic .Since then Ms.Shoji is regularly invited to many prominent orchestras, including the
Israel Philharmonic ,Berlin Philharmonic ,London Symphony Orchestra ,Baltimore Symphony ,St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra ,Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia andWDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton ofLorin Maazel ,Yuri Temirkanov andSemyon Bychkov .Sayaka Shoji records with
Deutsche Grammophon and performs on the 1715 "Joachim"Stradivarius on loan from theNippon Music Foundation .Discography
*"Paganini Violin Concerto No.1 / Chausson Poėme / Waxman Carmen Fantasy / Milstein Paganiniana":Sayaka Shoji,
Violin :The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Conducted byZubin Mehta :July 2000,Deutsche Grammophon *"Louvre Recital":Sayaka Shoji,
Violin :Itamar Golan ,Piano :September 2001,Deutsche Grammophon *"
Prokofiev Violin Sonatas andShostakovich Preludes":Sayaka Shoji,Violin :Itamar Golan ,Piano :December 2003,Deutsche Grammophon *"Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos":Sayaka Shoji,
Violin :Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France , Conducted byMyung-Whun Chung :October 2005,Deutsche Grammophon External links
* [http://www.sayaka-shoji.com/index.html Sayaka Shoji's Official Website]
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