Born in Tokyo, Sayaka 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 and then at the Musikverein, Vienna, at the age of fourteen. Since winning first prize at the Paganini Competition in 1999, Sayaka Shoji has collaborated with 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 Philharmonia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic. Recent highlights include successful debuts at the BBC Proms with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko and the Blossom Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra, a recital tour with Víkingur Ólafsson, a UK tour with Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as Bernstein’s 100th gala at the Vienna Musikverein with Tonkünstler-Orchester. Alongside her concert activities, in 2007 she has created an experimental visual-music project, Synesthesia, and exposed oil-paintings and video-art works. A prolific recording artist, she has released eleven albums, including Prokofiev, Sibelius and Beethoven Violin Concertos with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Yuri Temirkanov. Sayaka 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 ca. 1729 kindly loaned to her by Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry Ltd.