Sayaka Shoji
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“Shoji isn’t merely a superb technician, she’s a deeply engaging performer who punches above her weight.” (Gramophone Magazine 2011)
Sayaka Shoji (1983) was born in Tokyo into an artistic family (her mother is a painter; her grandmother, a poet) and spent her early childhood in Siena, Italy. When she was 5 years old her family moved back to Japan, where she started studying the violin. She was the first Japanese and youngest winner at the Paganini Competition in Genoa in 1999. Her remarkable insight into musical languages comes from her mix of European and Japanese backgrounds.
Alongside her usual concert activities, Shoji has created an experimental visual-music project, ‘Synesthesia’ in 2007, and exposed oil-paintings and video-art works.
Sayaka Shoji plays a Stradivarius ‘Recamier’ c.1729 kindly loaned to her by Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry Ltd.