Born in Tokyo in 1975, Shinsuke Ishihara began piano at the age of three, took up percussion at thirteen, and came to the marimba at twenty. He graduated at the top of his class from Toho Gakuen College of Music and went on to graduate with the highest distinction (“grootste onderscheiding”) from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. He performed under the stage name SINSKE from 2003 until September 2024, and now appears under his own name as Shinnosuke Ishihara (石原慎之助).
After Toho Gakuen he studied in Belgium on a Belgian government scholarship, also graduating at the top of his class from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He took the top prize at the Tenuto 2000 competition in Belgium, third prize at the Tromp international competition in the Netherlands (2000), and second prize at the third World Marimba Competition in Germany (2002). Back in Japan, he made his major-label debut in 2003 with the album Infinity under the name SINSKE, developed the one-of-a-kind EMP MIDI marimba with Yamaha, and has recorded extensively, including a long-running duo with shakuhachi player Dozan Fujiwara.
He has also formed a marimba duo with Ludwig Albert; their recording of “Sounds of Bells” appears on Albert’s compilation album The Best Of (2013). According to his archive-era profile, Ishihara studied marimba with Keiko Abe, Momoko Kamiya, Mutsuko Fujii, Nebojša Jovan Živković, Katarzyna Mycka, Gordon Stout, and Ludwig Albert, along with further teachers for percussion and vibraphone. His current official profile names Keiko Abe, Toshihiro Akamatsu, Eric Sammut, Bart Quartier, and Emmanuel Séjourné as his principal marimba teachers.