Daishin Kashimoto

Both as the soloist of an international orchestra and as a sought-after chamber musician, Daishin Kashimoto is a regular guest of major concert halls around the globe. The tremendous wealth of experience gained in over 15 years as first concert master of the Berliner Philharmoniker benefits him in his equally adept role as a soloist covering a wide repertoire from classical to new music.

In the 2025/26 season, Daishin Kashimoto will perform Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Lahav Shani and Bruch's Violin Concerto with the Dresdner Philharmonie under Donald Runnicles, a work he will also perform with the orchestra on tour in Japan. Further engagements include appearances with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya under Thomas Søndergård, and with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andreas Ottensamer, among others. As Artist in Residence, he continues his close collaboration with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester. He will also travel to Japan with the Philharmonisches Oktett Berlin, and, together with his trio partners Éric Le Sage and Claudio Bohórquez, undertake concert tours to Norway, Germany, and Switzerland.

Recently, Daishin Kashimoto has appeared with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, and the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hanover. A further highlight was the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's new violin concerto Prayer with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Paavo Järvi, followed by performances with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana.

Having collaborated with conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Yehudi Menuhin, Myung-Whun Chung, Fabio Luisi, Thomas Søndergård, Kazuki Yamada, Daniel Harding and Philippe Jordan, Daishin Kashimoto has already made guest appearances with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Bavaria, Frankfurt and WDR Cologne, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also appeared repeatedly as a soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker, performing Mozart's Sinfonia concertante at the Grafenegg Festival and the Lucerne Festival, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, and Tchaikovsky's Sérénade mélancolique and Valse Scherzo at the Berlin Waldbühne. 

As a chamber musician Daishin Kashimoto has appeared alongside Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alessio Bax, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, Tabea Zimmermann, Yefim Bronfman, Claudio Bohórquez and Konstantin Lifschitz, among others. In 2024, Sony Classical released the critically acclaimed CD Concert de Chausson – Quintette de Vierne with Éric Le Sage (piano) and the Schumann Quartet. Further highlights of his discography include works by Beethoven, Fauré and Nino Rota, as well as Brahms' Violin Concerto with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Myung Whun Chung.  

His parents introduced him to various instruments early on, with the three-year-old opting for the violin and receiving his first lessons in Tokyo. After moving to the United States, Daishin Kashimoto was accepted, at the tender age of seven, as the youngest student to ever attend Julliard School's pre-college program; at age eleven he transferred to the Lübeck University of Music under Zakhar Bron, before becoming a student of Rainer Kussmaul at the Freiburg University of Music from 1999 to 2004. He also had great success in major competitions as a teenager, taking first prize at the Menuhin Junior International Competition in 1993, the Cologne Violin Competition in 1994, and in 1996 at the Vienna Fritz Kreisler and the Long-Thibaud Competitions. Daishin Kashimoto has been the artistic director of the Le Pont Music Festival in Ako and Himeji (Japan) since 2007. He plays on a del Gesu 1744 "de Beriot" kindly loaned by Crystco, Inc. and its chairman Mr. Hikaru Shimura.

2025/26 season

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