Eric Le Sage & Daishin Kashimoto
Biography Eric Le Sage & Daishin Kashimoto
Eric Le Sage
is established as one of the leading pianists of his generation and a famous representative of the French piano school, regularly boasted for his very subtle sound, his real sense of structure and poetic phrasing. Already when he was 20 years old, the Financial Times had described him as “an extremely cultivated disciple of the great French tradition of Schumann piano”. In 2010, die Zeit, praised his “ideal French piano aesthetics and clarity”
In 2010 Eric Le Sage very successfully came to the end of a project that he had cherished and prepared for a long time: recording Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano He has been invited to perform in this context in various venues around the world including the Louisiana Museum of Arts in Denmark for a 10-concert series until 2010, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Salle Pleyel for a carte blanche in 2008, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées for a recital in 2010, the Schumann Festival in Düsseldorf, La Roque d’Anthéron, la Folle Journée, St Magnus Festival, the Warsaw Beethoven Festival for the Schumann year, among other venues throughout the world. These recordings for the independent French label Alpha were awarded in the summer 2010 the very prestigious Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Reviewers from the world over have written elated comments about what is already cited as a reference in the history of Schumann recordings.
Eric Le Sage has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in such major venues as la Roque d’Anthéron, Festival International de Menton, Potsdam Sanssouci, Théâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel, Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Ludwigsburg Festival, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Dublin’s celebrity series, Louisiana Museum of Arts, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, ... as well as various venues in Germany, Italy, Spain, the United-Kingdom, South America, the United-States, Japan.
Eric is invited to perform as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Philharmonic, the Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart’s SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Gothenburg Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic,, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Zwickau Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National d’Ile de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, with conductors like Armin Jordan, Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Louis Langrée, Michel Plasson, Michael Stern, Sir Simon Rattle…
Most of Eric Le Sage’s recordings for RCA-BMG, Naïve, EMI and now Alpha were highly acclaimed and awarded the most sought after rewards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Choc de l’Année Classica, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique.
Born in Aix en Provence, Eric Le Sage was the winner of major international competitions such as Porto in 1985 and the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau, in 1989. He was also a prize-winner at Leeds International competition the same year, which allowed him to perform under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.
Daishin Kashimoto
Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, Daishin Kashimoto studied with Prof. Naoko Tanaka, a faculty member at the Juilliard School. He was accepted by the pre-college division of the Juilliard School as its youngest student and received the Edward John Noble Foundation Scholarship. He continued his studies in Germany with Prof. Zakhar Bron at the Luebeck Musikhochschule and at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg under Prof. Rainer Kussmaul.
In 1988, Kashimoto gave his first recital, as well as his first concert as a soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble in New York. Since then, he has given recitals and solo appearances in the USA, the Far East and in many European countries. He has performed with numerous internationally renowned orchestras, including the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Radio Symphony Orchestras of Cologne, Frankfurt and Moscow, Orchestre National de France, Vienna and Berlin Symphony Orchestras, English Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, under the baton of such great conductors as Hugh Wolff, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Heinrich Schiff, Mikhail Pletnev, Myung-Whun Chung and Yury Temirkanov.
Daishin Kashimoto is first prize winner of such renowned competitions as the 6th Menuhin International Junior Violin Competition (England, 1993), the International Competition for Violinists (Cologne, 1994), and, in 1996, as the youngest winner in history of both the International Fritz Kreisler Violin Competition in Vienna and the Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud International Competition for Piano and Violin in Paris. In 1994, Daishin was awarded the Steigenberger Prize and the Davidoff Prize, as well as the Brahms Prize (Germany, 1999).
Kashimoto signed a worldwide recording contract with Sony Classical and has released two CDs with Itamar Golan and a live recording with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Myung-Whum Chung.
