Shuichi Okada was born in Bordeaux in 1995 and began playing the violin at the age of five. He started his training at the Bordeaux Conservatory with Stéphane Rougier before being unanimously admitted, at only 15, to the Paris National Conservatory of Music (CNSM) in the class of Roland Daugareil, Suzanne Gessner, and Christophe Poiget. He later continued his studies at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin with Mihaela Martin, as well as at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel with Augustin Dumay.
A laureate of numerous prestigious academies – including the Seiji Ozawa Academy (Switzerland), the Carl Flesch Academy (where he received the Stennebrüggen, Carl Flesch, and Ginette Neveu prizes), and the Santander Festival – Shuichi has also distinguished himself in several international competitions: 2nd Prize at the Postacchini Competition, 1st Prize at the Ginette Neveu Competition, and 1st Prize along with the award for Most Outstanding Personality at the Mirecourt Competition. More recently, he has been recognized in the Lipizer Competition (Gorizia), the Fritz Kreisler Competition (Vienna), and the Markneukirchen Competition (2nd Prize), where he also received the “Prince of Hessen” Prize during the Kronberg Academy masterclasses.
These distinctions have led him to perform as a soloist with numerous orchestras: the Avignon Lyric Orchestra, the Weimar Hochschule Orchestra, the Nancy Symphony Orchestra, the DFO at the Salle Pleyel, the Nouvelle Europe Chamber Orchestra, the Baden-Baden and Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestras, the Normandy Orchestra, the Toulon Opera, as well as the orchestras of Bayonne, Pasdeloup, Biel, Wallonia, and the Consuelo Orchestra.
Shuichi is also a regular guest at renowned festivals: Les Vacances de Monsieur Haydn, La Roque d’Anthéron, La Vézère, Les Folles Journées (Nantes and Tokyo), the Deauville Easter Festival, Radio France Montpellier, Giverny, 1001 Notes, Val d’Isère, Guéthary, the Sceaux Orangerie, the Palazzetto Bru Zane… He shares the stage there with artists such as Renaud Capuçon, Jérôme Ducros, Michel Strauss, Raphaël Pidoux, Jean-Claude Vanden Eyden, Peter Frankl, Philippe Jaroussky, Claire Désert, Antoine Tamestit, Lise Berthaud, Itamar Golan, Jean-François Heisser, Stéphanie-Marie Degand, Gérard Caussé, Augustin Dumay, Gary Hoffman, Miguel Da Silva, and François Salque.
He has performed in major European venues: the Salle Pleyel, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Salle Cortot, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie de Paris (Boulez Hall), the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the Bozar and Flagey in Brussels, the Cité de la Musique…
Shuichi is a member of the Trio Arnold, alongside Bum Jun Kim (cello) and Manuel Vioque-Judde (viola), in residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation.
He has recorded several critically acclaimed albums: a first Brahms/Schumann disc with Clément Lefebvre for Mirare; the Brahms quintets and sextets (B Records) with Pierre Fouchenneret, Lise Berthaud, Adrien Boisseau, François Salque, and Yan Levionnois; Schubert’s octet and a work by Raphaël Merlin for the Alpha label; as well as a recording of French melodies with I Giardini and Véronique Gens, which received a Choc Classica, a Diapason d’or, and a nomination at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. The first album by the Trio Arnold, devoted to Beethoven (Mirare), also received a Diapason d’or. More recently, he took part in the complete chamber music of César Franck for Fuga Libera, alongside partners such as Jean-Claude Vanden Eyden, Augustin Dumay, Miguel Da Silva, Gary Hoffman, and Jonathan Fournel.
Shuichi is supported by the Safran Foundation, Or du Rhin, and Banque Populaire. He plays a violin by Francesco Goffriller, generously loaned by the Adelus endowment fund.
