Sayaka Shoji's prodigious talents were noticed very early when she gave her first performance of a Mozart Violin Concerto at the age of ten. Her first Tokyo recital took place in 1996 when she was only thirteen. Born in Tokyo in 1983 Shoji is already the winner of numerous international competitions and rose to international attention when in 1999 she became the first Japanese violinist to win first prize at the prestigious Paganini International Violin Competition in Genova, Italy.

Since then, Shoji has emerged as an important young artist. She has appeared around the world with leading orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian State Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Festival Strings Lucerne, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Sinfonica Nationale della R.A.I., Philharmonia Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

Zubin Mehta has been a frequent musical partner to Shoji. Other conductors she has worked with include Ashkenazy, Berio, Bertini, Jansons, Sawallisch, Spivakov, Termirkanov and Zukerman. She has appeared in the major concert halls of Japan and Europe.

Sayaka Shoji is also a keen recitalist and chamber musician. She has toured Italy and Japan frequently in this capacity and will give recital tours in both countries again in the coming season. She was also invited to appear in Gstaad in 2002 and at the 2001 Verbier Festival where she performed with Sawallisch and took part in chamber music concerts with Vadim Repin, Steven Isserlis and Mikhail Pletnev. She made her Paris debut in the Louvre recital series with her regular accompanist, Itamar Golan.

Sayaka Shoji's concerts this season will include performances with the NHK Symphony with Dutoit; the Israel Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras under Mehta; the Sinfonica Nationale della R.A.I and the Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo with Inbal; the Orchestra della Toscana under Neschling; the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra with de Priest; the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra under Ono and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Temirkanov. She will also tour Japan with the Czech Philharmonic under Kreizberg and the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Bychkov.

Sayaka Shoji has made two recordings with Deutsche Grammophon. The first is a disc of Paganini, Chausson and Waxman recorded with the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. This was followed by a recital of Dvoøák, Szymanowski, Brahms and Ravel entitled Live at the Louvre with accompaniment by Itamar Golan.