Across Europe, North America, and Asia, Shunsuke Sato has already earned recognition for his exceptional artistry and virtuosity from audiences, orchestras, and music critics. With a colorful, wide-ranging pallet of expression, a rich, noble tone, brilliant technique, and insightful freshness of approach, he has established himself as one of the most outstanding young violinists among the young generation.
Since making his debut as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of ten, Sato has since frequently appeared with major orchestras across the globe. In Europe, these orchestras have included among others the Berlin Deutsche Oper, the Bavarian Radio, Frankfurt Radio, Hannover Radio Philharmonic, Hamburg, Copenhagen Symphony, Copenhagen Symphony, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Orkest van het Oosten (Holland), Beethoven Academy (Belgium), Monte Carlo Philharmonic (Monaco), Gulbenkian Orchestra (Portugal), Novosibirsk Symphony, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra,Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, and St. Petersburg Symphony; in the United States, with the National Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and Syracuse Symphony, among numerous others.
Collaborations with many distinguished conductors have enriched Sato's musical experience, among whom are Gary Bertini, Myung-Whun Chung, Sergiu Comissiona, Alexander Dmitrijew, Philippe Entremont, Thierry Fischer, Lawrence Foster, Valery Gerghiev, Alan Gilbert, Christopher Hogwood, Zdenek Macal, Ingo Metzmacher, Eiji Oue, Muhai Tang, Yuri Temirkanov, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and David Zinman. In recent times Sato has get also came into contact with Ivry Gitlis and Ida Haendel to whom he is grateful for musical inspiration and encouragements.
As a recitalist, he has been welcomed on the stages of the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Gstaad (Switzerland), Ingolstadt, Friedrichshafen (Germany), and Mallorca (Spain). In the United States, he has appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, 92nd Street Y and Carnegie Weill Hall in New York City, Aspen Music Festival, Gardner Museum in Boston, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Grand Teton Music Festival, and La Jolla Chamber Music Society.
A highly successful debut recital-tour in Japan in 1995 launched and expanded Sato's activities in Asia, enabling him to perform with renowned Asian orchestras such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and Singapore Symphony, while appearing in recitals at Kioi Hall, Suntory Hall, and Tokyo Opera City, among others.
Sato's debut recording (released January 2005) of Eugène Ysaÿe's six sonatas for solo violin under Nami Records earned an uncommon unity of laudations from the Japanese press, including major newspapers as Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi, and from numerous music magazines. Most recently in March 2005, Sato was the recipient of the prestigious Idemitsu Music Award, a prestige for young musicians in Japan.
The 2005-2006 Season will feature Sato with the Kassel State Symphony, Saarbrucken State Orchestra, Orchestre Romantique Européen, San Luis Obispo Symphony, Boca Raton Symphonia, and under several recital series and orchestral engagements in Japan. He will also partake in festivals in France (Gérardmer, Cassis), the Iturbi Gold Medal Series (USA) and the Great Mountains Music Festival (Korea).
Shunsuke Sato's repertoire ranges widely from baroque to contemporary, in both the major works with orchestra and solo recital works. In the recent years, he has performed works of the twentieth century by Erich Korngold, Miklos Rózsa, William Walton, Kaja Saariaho, and Peteris Vasks, to much critical acclaim in Europe and in the US. In Japan, Sato will premiere a work by Akira Nishimura in November 2005 at the event by Japan Society for Contemporary Music.
Scholarships granted include the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Starling Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Japanese-American Association of New York City, and Lillian-Gordon Hardy Endowment, as well as a Salon De Virtuosi/Sony Fellowship Grant. He was also awarded as "The Youth of the Year 2000" by Comcast Cablevision (Cingular Inc.).
Born in Tokyo in 1984, Sato began the violin at the age of two at the Suzuki Talent Institute, and, due to his father's doctorate study in economics at University of Pennsylvania, moved to the United States. From an early age, Sato's exceptional gifts distinguished themselves, winning prizes such as the Philadelphia Orchestra's student competition at the age of nine, and becoming the youngest ever undertaken by the Young Concert Artists (YCA) Management in New York City at the age of twelve. His studies have included those at the Juilliard Pre-college under the renowned pedagogue Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki, at the Curtis Institute under Jaime Laredo, and Chin Kim. He is currently under the tutelage of Gérard Poulet at the Ecole Normale de Paris.
Sato plays the "Booth" Stradivarius of 1716 by the gracious loan of the Nippon Music Foundation
Violinists