JUN SASAKI (’cello)
Jun was born in 1989 in London. At the ages of 10, 11 and 12, he won the Peggy Page trophy
at the North London Festival as the most promising ’cellist. In 2002 he appeared in
a TV programme featuring Britain’s child prodigies on Channel 3 (ITV).
In the summer of 2002, he was invited to play in the Boat Proms in the Lake District alongside
the violinist Kazuki Sawa, Professor of Tokyo Fine Arts University. In October 2002,
Jun was invited, as the finalist of the European Student of the Year 2002 of the 10th ESTA
(European String Teachers Association) International Conference, to Denmark as a Koch Foundation
Scholar. In December, he was given a joint concert with Mr Carus in South Kensington, London.
In 2003, Jun attended the first Solo Bach Competition, and was awarded 2nd prize. In July
2003, he won the Borenstein Concerto Competition, and performed Bruch’s Kol Nidrei
with the Borenstein Orchestra at St James’s Church in Piccadilly, London. In September 2003,
he made his debut in Geneva at the Chateau de Sallenoves, invited by the Circle International
Amis de la Musique (CIAM).
More recently, he has performed with the Croydon and Guildford Symphony Orchestras in UK and the
Kaunas Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania, and has won several prizes at the Ealing Music Festival,
including the Concerto Prize. He now studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey with Thomas
Carroll, and previously with Louise Hopkins. He has had masterclasses and lessons with Ralph
Kirshbaum, Steven Isserlis, Alice Neary, Emma Ferrand, Steffan Popov, Alexander Boyarsky,
Douglas Cummings, Colin Carr, Melissa Phelps, Christian Giger, Lowri Blake, David Strange and
Philip Sheppard.
June 2005