Danjūrō Ishizaka

• Name — Danjulo Ishizaka • Born — 14 May 1979 • Birthplace — Bonn, Germany • Other Names — 石坂 団十郎 • Occupation — Cellist

Ishizaka, born in Bonn, Germany, is the son of the German piano teacher Ruth Nathrath and Japanese immigrant Junkichi Ishizaka. His sister is the pianist Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka. He began taking cello lessons at the age of 4. He was a student of Boris Pergamenschikow in Berlin from 1998 until Pergamenschikow's death in 2004, at which point he completed his studies with Tabea Zimmermann.

Ishizaka has been a soloist with many orchestras, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, all 5 BBC Orchestras, the Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under directors including Gerd Albrecht, Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Michail and Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Roger Norrington, Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonard Slatkin. He has further performed with artists including Gidon Kremer, Lisa Batiashvili, Viviane Hagner, Tabea Zimmermann, Julia Fischer, Baiba Skride, Antje Weithaas, Veronika Eberle, Martin Helmchen and Ray Chen. His international debut took place with the Vienna Symphony in the Wiener Musikverein under direction of Krzysztof Penderecki. The cellist Rostropovich described Danjulo Ishizaka's artistry with the words: "phenomenal in his technical abilities, perfect in his power of interpretation." From 2004 to 2013, Ishizaka played the Stradivarius "Lord Aylesford", previously played by Janos Starker, and later played the De Munck-Feuermann (1730). Both celli were provided to him by the Nippon Music Foundation. Ishizaka also plays the Schnabl "Pergamenschikow" cello, provided to him by the Kronberg Academy.

"The only area in which there seems to be no contrast or conflict is over his prodigious technique, and to hear him live is to appreciate not only how free of any technical boundaries he is but also how that has translated into his performances as a disarming lack of egotism." "Ishizaka is simply sensational in Kodály’s Solo Sonata. He proves masterly in creating cogency with what can often seem quite rhapsodic material." "Ishizaka also gives us a cogent, virtuoso reading of Kodály's magnificent, soulful Solo Cello Sonata. This is a terrifying piece to play, a work which, in Ishizaka's words, “demolishes the limits of what was thought technically possible on the cello at the time.” The last movement's pyrotechnics are dazzling, but the sonata's sparer, haunted passages are equally effective – the slow movement's dark opening is marvellous in Ishizaka's hands. A superb recital."