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.

Vadim Gluzman's extraordinary artistry brings to life the glorious violinistic tradition of the 19th and 20th centuries. Gluzman's wide repertoire embraces new music and his performances are heard around the world through live broadcasts and a striking catalogue of award-winning recordings exclusively for the BIS label.

The Israeli violinist appears regularly with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, and Leipzig Gewandhaus. Gluzman has enjoyed collaborations with many of today's leading conductors, including Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Tugan Sokhiev, Sir Andrew Davis, Neeme Järvi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Semyon Bychkov, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Paavo Järvi, and Hannu Lintu. His festival appearances include performances at Verbier, Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Lockenhaus, as well as the North Shore Chamber Music Festival in Chicago, founded by Gluzman and pianist Angela Yoffe, his wife and recital partner.

Highlights of his 2017-18 season include appearances with the Boston Symphony under Tugan Sokhiev and debut performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly. Mr. Gluzman returns to Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra and celebrates Leonard Bernstein's centennial year with performances of his Serenade for violin and orchestra with both the BBC Symphony in London and the San Francisco Symphony. He tours Europe in a piano trio with pianist Yevgeny Sudbin and cellist Johannes Moser, including engagements at London's Wigmore Hall and Berlin's Konzerthaus, and will appear as soloist with the Toronto, Vancouver, Oregon, Göteborg and Lucerne Symphonies, the Czech Philharmonic and the Finnish Radio Orchestra. Gluzman will lead performances with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio, where he continues in his fourth year as Creative Partner and Principal Guest Artist.

This season, Gluzman will give the European premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Bayan with Johannes Moser, Elsbeth Moser, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich under Omer Meir Wellber. He has given live and recorded premieres of other works by Gubaidulina, as well as Giya Kancheli, Peteris Vasks, Michael Daugherty, Lera Auerbach and most recently Elena Firsova.

Vadim Gluzman's latest CD for the BIS label features Brahms' Violin Concerto with Lucerne Symphony conducted by James Gaffigan and includes the composer's Sonata No.1 for Violin and Piano with Angela Yoffe. Accolades for his extensive discography include the Diapason d'Or of the Year, Gramophone's Editor's Choice, Classica Magazine's esteemed Choc de Classica award, and Disc of the Month by The Strad, BBC Music Magazine, ClassicFM, and others.

Born in the former Soviet Union in 1973, Gluzman began violin studies at age 7. He studied with Roman Sne in Latvia and Zakhar Bron in Russia before moving to Israel in 1990, where he became a student of Yair Kless. In the United States, he studied with Arkady Fomin in Dallas and at The Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki. Early in his career, Gluzman enjoyed the encouragement and mentorship of Isaac Stern which continued until the Stern's passing in 2001. In 1994 he received the prestigious Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award.

Vadim Gluzman plays the legendary 1690 'ex-Leopold Auer' Stradivari on extended loan to him through the generosity of the Stradivari Society of Chicago.