Name: Daishin Kashimoto
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Biography

Both as soloist of international orchestras and as a sought-after chamber musician, Daishin Kashimoto is a regular guest of major concert halls worldwide. His profound and intense interpretations of a wide-ranging repertoire, from Baroque and Classical to the music of our time, draw on the tremendous wealth of experience he has gained during more than 15 years as principal concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Daishin Kashimoto opened the 2026/27 season as Artist in Residence with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 under the baton of Andrew Manze. As part of the residency, he will perform Toshio Hosokawa’s violin concerto Prayer under Bas Wiegers, lead a chamber music project focusing on Beethoven, and perform Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 under Kirill Karabits. In December, he will perform the same Prokofiev concerto with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra under Wen-Pin Chien, where he will also lead a chamber music project with the orchestra’s musicians. In February, he will perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the George Enescu Philharmonic, before returning to Tchaikovsky’s concerto as a soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker on a tour of Japan.

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, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Bavaria, Frankfurt and WDR Cologne, the Luxembourg Philharmonic and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Most recently, Daishin Kashimoto has appeared with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne. 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. In 2026, he performed Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 under Lahav Shani. A further highlight was the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's 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.

As a chamber musician, Daishin Kashimoto has appeared alongside Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Leif Ove Andsnes, Éric Le Sage, Claudio Bohórquez, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, Tabea Zimmermann, Yefim Bronfman, and Konstantin Lifschitz, among others. At the Le Pont International Music Festival in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan - where he has served as artistic director since 2007 - he once again welcomed prominent chamber music partners in September 2026, including Alessio Bax, Emmanuel Pahud, Lise Berthaud, Nabil Shehata, Amihai Grosz, and Maximilian Hornung.

Daishin Kashimoto’s latest CD release, a recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with the Berlin Baroque Soloists, has received enthusiastic reviews. The “recording for the ages” (as described by the platform Klassik begeistert) was, amongst other accolades, named an Editor’s Choice by Gramophone magazine. Prior to this, Sony Classical (2024) released the CD Concert de Chausson – Quintette de Vierne featuring Éric Le Sage (piano) and the Schumann Quartet, which was also praised by critics. His highly acclaimed CD recordings also 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 plays on a del Gesu 1744 "de Beriot" kindly loaned by Crystco, Inc. and its chairman Mr. Hikaru Shimura.

2026/27 season

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Links

Berliner Philharmoniker, 1st Concertmaster

Le Pont International Music Festival in Japan, music director

Daishin Kahimoto listens to the latest VELVET sounds products