When Sayaka Shoji performed at the Lucerne Festival and the Musikverein, Vienna with the Festival Strings Lucerne and Rudolph Baumgartner in 1997, at only fourteen years old, she was already the winner of several international competitions and a familiar figure on the stages of her native Japan. Her first prize at the 1999 Paganini Competition - the first Japanese and youngest ever winner - established her on the international music scene.

Since then she has been performing under the baton of conductors such as Askhenazy, Dutoit, Sawallisch, Marriner, Chailly, Zukerman, Inbal, Bertini, Spivakov, Berio and Bashmet, with orchestras including the NHK Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Bayern State, Philharmonia, WDR Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano "Giuseppe Verdi", Orchestra Sinfonica dell 'Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo and Bergen Philharmonic.

After a brilliant Japan tour with Yuri Temirkanov and the St Petersburg Philharmonic in 2001, the maestro immediately re-invited her as replacement soloist on the Baltimore Symphony’s European tour two weeks later, confirming a remarkable musical relationship and the beginning of numerous collaborations. Further important engagements soon followed, including appearances at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Berlin Philharmonic/Mariss Jansons, at the "Isaac Stern Memorial Concert" in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra/Mehta in 2002 and her U.S. debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic/Mehta in 2003. 2004 saw Sayaka appear as soloist on the LSO’s 100th Anniversary Asia tour with Sir Colin Davis, her New York debut with NY Philharmonic/Maazel in the same year was immediately followed by a Japan tour and she then embarked on a highly successful European tour with WDR Symphony Orchestra/Bychkov, taking her to such prestigious halls as Royal Festival Hall in London, Munchen Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus. Major engagements in 2005 and 2006 included an extensive Asian tour with the Tokyo Philharmonic/Chung (Tchaikovsky and Brahms), several concerts with the NDR Symphony Orchestra/Alan Gilbert (Brahms), further collaborations with Temirkanov in St. Petersburg (Khachaturian), as well as concerts with James Judd and the Baltimore Symphony, with Jonathan Nott and the Bamberg Symphony (Prokofiev n° 2), European and South American tours with the WDR Symphony and Bychkov (Glazunov) and a performance of the Tchaikovsky with the Israel Philharmonic and Ivan Fischer..

As well as concerto performances, Sayaka appears regularly in recital and in chamber music performances at festivals such as Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Evian, the Estate Musicale del Garda, the Fêtes Musicales en Touraine, the Folle Journée in Nantes and Tokyo, where she performs recitals and chamber music with colleagues such as Vadim Repin, Mikhail Pletnev, Steven Isserlis, Leonidas Kavakos, Itamar Golan, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Tatiana Vassiljeva, Nicholas Angelich, Yu Kosuge and Louis Lortie.

Sayaka's 2006/07 season began with concerts in Tokyo with Norrington/NHK (Beethoven) and a gala concert with Kurt Masur for his Mendelssohn foundation, followed by a European tour with Temirkanov/Saint Petersburg Philharmonic (Prokofiev). After an extensive tour with Pappano/Santa Cecilia (Paganini), she returned, with great success, to perform recitals and chamber music at the Verbier Festival.

In 2008, she will rejoin the LSO and Temirkanov in London before making her way to the US for her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi. Sayaka then returns to Salle Pleyel, Paris, where this season she made an enthusiastically received debut with Prokofiev's Concerto No.1 under Temirkanov, to perform Stravinsky with Chung / Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in March.

Sayaka's debut CD on Deutsche Grammophon with Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic was released in 2000 and features music by Paganini, Chausson and Waxman. It was followed by two CDs with Itamar Golan: a live recording of her September 2001 debut recital at the Auditorium du Louvre and a disc of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. In October 2005, she recorded the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Chung.

Her teachers have included Uto Ughi and Riccardo Brengola (chamber music) at Sienna's Accademia Musicale Chigiana in 1995, and Shlomo Mintz while on a scholarship grant from Israel. Since 1998, she has studied with Prof. Zakhar Bron at the Hochschle Für Musik Köln and, after graduating in 2004, decided to make Europe her permanent base. Sayaka performs on the "Joachim" Stradivarius (1715) generously provided by the Nippon Music Foundation.

 

October 2007. Please discard any undated or previously dated materials