Sayako Kusaka

Events:

Sayako Kusaka is the chamber orchestra’s artistic director. She has been first concertmaster at Konzerthaus­orchester Berlin since March 2008 and, aditionally, concertmaster at Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Japan since 2012.

She began her musical training in Tokyo. Her teachers were Takashi Shimizu at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts in Japan, Eduard Schmieder at the Southern Methodist University in USA, and Rainer Kussmaul at the Freiburg Musikhochschule in Germany.

Sayako Kusaka has received many prizes. In 2005 she was nominated “Best Musician Of The Year” by the Japan Music Critics Association. In 2009 she received the prestigious “Idemitsu Music Award”. She won prizes at the Pablo de Sarasate Violin Competition (1995, Forth Prize), Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Finnland (2000, Third Prize), and Japan Music Competition (2000, First Prize). At the Premio Paganini Violin Competition in Italy (2001) she was awarded a silver medal and the Best Interpretation of Caprice Award. At the Rudolfo Lipizer Violin Competition in Italy (2002) she received the First Prize and also won seven special prizes – the maximum for which she was eligible – including awards for best performances of Bach, Mozart, contemporary compositions and more.

Sayako Kusaka soloed internationally with Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Kammerorchester Berlin, Kirov Staatsorchester, Bacau Philharmonic, Ecuador Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo City Philharmonic, Kyoto Symphony, New Japan Symphony, Kansai Philharmonic, Kyoto Philharmonic, Sendai Symphony, Meadows Symphony, and Kremerata Baltica at the Lockenhaus-Fest 2010.

Sayako Kusaka has been a member of the Konzerthaus String Quartet Berlin since 2013 and the Streichtrio Berlin since 2016. She plays a violin by Joannes Franciscus Pressenda (Torino) from 1822.

Born in:

Japan

Current centre of life:

Berlin

Instrument:

Violin

Second, third or even fourth instrument:

None

My career aspiration as a child:

Housewife

This was the profession my parents envisioned for me:

Nothing really concrete.

Works or concert experiences that shaped me:

When I played Shostakovich’s 1st Violin Concerto for the first time at the age of 17.

Work with the greatest music-making pleasure (and why?):

For me, these are works by Johann Sebastian Bach.

I would like a work for my instrument by this composer (and why?):

Gustav Mahler, because he didn’t write any works for violin and I really like the violin solos in his symphonies.

I would get up in the middle of the night for that:

My favourite thing is to sleep through!

Special / curious own concert experience:

When I played Mendelssohn’s sonata, I had extremely little time to turn over the notes and didn’t make it.Then I continued to play a few bars by heart and made eye contact with a gentleman in the front row. He finally understood what I was asking him and managed to turn the page. And by the way, this concert took place in the Schumann House in Leipzig!

My most valuable tip for the next generation of musicians:

Everyone should try to develop a clear idea of how to create their own interpretation of music.

That's what I associate with Leipzig as a city of music:

The lives and works of some of the most important composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Grieg, etc.