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Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator whose unique
career has transcended traditional boundaries through her
relentless drive to explore and build connections between music and
the human experience. Never at rest, Midori brings the same dynamic
innovation and expressive insight that has made her a top concert
violinist to her other roles as a leading global cultural
ambassador and a dedicated music educator.
A leading concert violinist for over 30 years, Midori regularly
transfixes audiences around the world, bringing together graceful
precision and intimate expression that allows the listening public
to not just hear music but to be personally moved by it. She
has performed with the world's top orchestras including the London
Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, New York
Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Orchestre
Symphonique de Montreal, Cincinnati Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony
and Czech Philharmonic. In addition, she has collaborated with
leading musicians such as Mariss Jansons, Peter Eötvös, Christoph
Eschenbach, Daniele Gatti, Alan Gilbert, Susanna Mälkki, Kent
Nagano, Robert Spano, James Conlon, Omer Meir Wellber and Paavo
Järvi, among others.
The 2017/18 season highlights Midori's versatility with
performances of orchestral and chamber works by such composers as
Tchaikovsky, Bernstein, Hindemith, Brahms, Schubert and Enescu in
Europe, Asia, North and South America. The DVD of her
highly-acclaimed interpretation of J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas
for Solo Violin was also released. In the recording, filmed at
Köthen Castle where Bach served as Kapellmeister, Midori unites her
technical and expressive mastery with her historic and emotional
insight into the composer, providing the viewer with a
multidimensional experience of Bach's music.
Midori not only brings a fresh perspective to established
standards for violin but also ceaselessly strives to expand the
repertoire, including through the creation of new works. Midori
inspired Peter Eötvös to compose the violin concerto DoReMi, which
she then recorded with Eötvös and the Orchestre Philharmonique de
Radio France. The 2016 CD joins her diverse discography that
includes sonatas by Bloch, Janáček and Shostakovich performed with
pianist Özgür Aydin, and a 2013 Grammy Award-winning recording of
Hindemith's violin concerto with Christoph Eschenbach conducting
the NDR Symphony Orchestra
In her quest to explore and expand how music is essential to
people everywhere, Midori goes beyond the concert hall and
recording studio to those areas where music access is most needed.
In 2017, Midori celebrates the 25th anniversary of the activities
of two of her non-profit organizations: Midori & Friends, which
brings high-quality music education to New York City school
children, and MUSIC SHARING, a Japan-based program that provides
access to both western classical and Japanese music traditions
through innovative events, activities, instruction and
presentations in local schools, institutions and hospitals. Her
Partners in Performance organization, founded in 2003, promotes
interest in classical music outside of major urban centers across
the United States, while her Orchestra Residencies Program, begun
in 2004, encourages young musicians to develop a life-long and
multifaceted engagement with the performing arts, helping to ensure
that the classical scene will continue vibrantly for years to
come.
Midori also brings her activism to a global level. MUSIC
SHARING's International Community Engagement Program promotes
intercultural exchange by enabling young musicians from around the
world to come together and present community performances for
audiences with limited exposure to classical music. The program's
ensembles have performed in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Laos, Mongolia,
Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, Vietnam and Japan, and the 2017-2018
group will head to India as well as return to Japan
Midori also regularly speaks as an expert on cultural diplomacy,
most recently at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International
Studies in Washington, D.C. She has been honored for her
international activism: in 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
named Midori a Messenger of Peace, and in 2012 she received the
Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The same vision that motivates Midori's activism - discovering
and strengthening the bonds between people and music - also guides
her educational approach. From the 2018-2019 school year, she joins
the renowned violin faculty roster at the Curtis Institute of
Music, bringing her musical expertise as an active top-level
performer to her studio and her experience as an activist to the
school's community engagement programs. Prior to taking up this
position, Midori will visit Curtis to present master classes, work
with students on community building, and contribute to the school's
Artist-Citizen courses.
Until May 2018, Midori will also continue as a Distinguished
Professor of Violin and the Jascha Heifetz Chair holder at the
University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, where
she has spent 14 years working one-on-one with her violin students.
After moving to Curtis, she will continue her involvement at USC
through a visiting artist role.
Midori is also an honorary professor at Beijing's Central
Conservatory of Music, a guest professor at both Soai University in
Osaka and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and a distinguished
visiting artist at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins
University. Her own degrees in gender studies and psychology from
New York University (BA 2000, MA 2005) strongly inform her holistic
teaching philosophy: "In our studio, the tenets of Honesty, Health,
and Dignity guide us through the times of trial, self-doubt,
self-questioning, and growth."
Midori was born in Osaka, Japan in 1971 and began her violin
studies with her mother, Setsu Goto, after displaying a strong
aptitude for music at an early age. In 1982, conductor Zubin Mehta
invited the then 11-year-old Midori to perform with the New York
Philharmonic in the orchestra's annual New Year's Eve concert. The
standing ovation that followed her debut spurred Midori to pursue a
major musical career at the highest level.
Midori plays the 1734 Guarnerius del Gesù 'ex-Huberman'. She
uses four bows - two by Dominique Peccatte, one by François
Peccatte and one by Paul Siefried.