Violinist Daishin Kashimoto went from child prodigy to obtaining one of the most important orchestral positions by age 30 as the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Along with his concertmaster duties, he has also made solo appearances with top orchestras around the world and in chamber ensembles with many leading artists, and he has an expanding discography. In 2024, Kashimoto could be heard on the album Ernest Chausson: Concert pour piano, violon et quatuor; Louis Vierne: Quintette pour piano et cordes. Kashimoto was born in London on March 27, 1979. Out of all the toy instruments his parents gave him, Kashimoto preferred the violin, and he began taking lessons at age three in Tokyo with Kumiko Etoh. In 1986, at the age of seven, he was the youngest student accepted to Juilliard's pre-college division at that time. While there, he gave his first solo recital and appeared with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. His further studies included work with Zakhar Bron in Lübeck and Rainer Kussmaul in Freiburg, plus a few prize-winning performances throughout the '90s. Kashimoto made his recording debut in 1995 on the Ars Musici label, performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, with the Orchestra of the Cologne University of Music under conductor Marc Kissóczy. Signing with Sony Classical in 1999, Kashimoto released the album Passionata in 2002 with pianist Itamar Golan. He returned in 2007 with Myung-Whun Chung and the Dresden Staatskapelle for a recording of Brahms' Violin Concerto. That year, Kashimoto became the artistic director of Japan's Le Pont Music Festival in Ako and Himeji; he has continued in this role as of the mid-2020s. In 2009, Kashimoto was appointed as concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, the same position once held by Kussmaul. Kashimoto has appeared as a soloist with many of the best-known orchestras around the globe, including the Vienna, Boston, and NHK Symphonies and the Czech Philharmonic, among others. He has also performed chamber music with a long and distinguished list of other instrumentalists, such as Mischa Maisky, Shlomo Mintz, and Tabea Zimmermann. In 2014, Kashimoto issued a complete cycle of the Beethoven sonatas with Konstantin Lifschitz on Warner Classics. In 2020, Kashimoto collaborated with several other musicians for the album Vienne 1900 on the Alpha label. Alongside his concertmaster duties, Kashimoto premiered Toshio Hosokawa's violin concerto Prayer with the Berlin Philharmonic under Paavo Järvi in 2023 before offering the work's Swiss and Asian premieres with the Lucerne Symphony and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestras, respectfully. The following year, Kashimoto joined pianist Éric le Sage and the Schumann Quartett on a recording of Ernest Chausson's Concert for violin, piano, and string quartet, Op. 21, on Sony Classical. ~ Patsy Morita & Keith Finke, Rovi