Born in London
Member since 2009-09-01
Ensembles:
Awards:
First prizes at the Menuhin Junior International Competition (1993), the Cologne International Violin Competition (1994), the Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna (1996) and the Long-Thibaud International Competition in Paris (1996)
“At my first concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker I was terribly nervous, but as soon as the music started and the musicians became a unit, my nervousness disappeared and gave way to the sensation of being part of something special. Making music at the highest level like this simply gives me satisfaction and a certain feeling of being emotionally complete. It is a huge honour for me to be a part of this outstanding orchestra. I see my job as concertmaster as one of coordinating and conveying the communication within the orchestra and, especially, between the conductor/soloist and the orchestra.”
Daishin Kashimoto became 1st Concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2009, at the age of only 30: “It’s a great honour for me to be part of this outstanding orchestra.” The violinist, who grew up in Japan, the US and Germany, appears at least as often as a soloist with other ensembles as in his orchestra position – with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden and many others, naturally including frequent solo appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker as well. He is also a much sought-after chamber musician, whose extensive repertoire ranges from works of the Baroque period to contemporary music. At the age of seven, Daishin Kashimoto was accepted into the pre-college programme at New York’s Juilliard School of Music, the youngest student in this division. Since 2007, Daishin Kashimoto has been the Artistic Director of the Le Pont Music Festival, held in Ako and Himeji (Japan).
At the age of eleven, he began studying with Zakhar Bron at the University of Music in Lübeck, then continued his studies in Freiburg with Rainer Kussmaul, who was 1st Concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker at that time. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that Kashimoto would later become one of his successors, however: “Rainer Kussmaul never pushed me into this position, but when it became clear that I would apply for it, he was very supportive.” A stroke of luck, since “one rarely finds a concertmaster as outstanding as the Berliner Philharmonikers’ Daishin Kashimoto, also in other leading orchestras” (Bayerischer Rundfunk).
