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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.
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Midori, violin
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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.
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Vadim Gluzman, violin
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Chinese-American violinist Nancy Zhou, emerging as one of today’s outstanding talents, is rapidly building an international profile after winning the inaugural Harbin International Violin Competition and the Shanghai Isaac Stern Violin Competition in 2018.
Highlights from the 2019-20 season include Ms. Zhou’s debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival, Kansas Symphony/Peter Oundjian, San Diego Symphony/Eun Sun Kim, IRIS Orchestra/Michael Stern, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra/Lio Kuokman and Italy-based Padua Chamber Orchestra. Additionally, she will go on tour with Long Yu and the China Philharmonic in the winter of 2020. To conclude the year and celebrate the centennial of Isaac Stern, she will collaborate with the Osaka Philharmonic under the baton of David Stern.
The 2018-19 season saw Ms. Zhou performing with the Shanghai Symphony/Jaap van Zweden and the Sichuan Symphony/Darrell Ang, as well as making her debut in Poland with the Grammy award-winning Kalisz Philharmonic/Adam Klocek. To cap off 2019, Ms. Zhou made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York String Orchestra/Jaime Laredo.
From an early age, Ms. Zhou already gained experience by performing with an impressive list of orchestras. After making her debut in her hometown with the San Antonio Symphony at the age of 14, she went on to perform with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Tapiola Sinfonietta, St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Shenzhen Symphony, among others. Among the conductors with whom she has collaborated are Sakari Oramo, Christoph Poppen, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Jurjen Hempel, Muhai Tang, Sebastian Lang-Lassing and Ken-David Masur.
Alongside projects as a soloist, Ms. Zhou holds interest in chamber music and in providing guidance to young musicians. Since 2015 she regularly visits Taiwan to give masterclasses. In 2017 she was invited by the Encore Chamber Music Festival to serve as guest artist and faculty member. As a recitalist, she has visited the Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, Festpiele Mecklenburg-Vorpormmern, Festival de Coimbra and the Marvao Festival.
Born in Texas in 1993, Nancy Zhou began the violin at age four under the guidance of her father, who remained her teacher throughout her youth. She went on to study with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory while pursuing her interest in literature and earning a Bachelor’s of Arts at Harvard University. In 2008 Ms. Zhou caught the attention of Anne-Sophie Mutter, after which she received personal support and multiple performance opportunities across the globe. Since 2018 Ms. Zhou also holds the title of Associated Artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where she previously worked with Augustin Dumay.
Currently, Ms. Zhou plays on a Joseph Guarneri violin from 1730-33 known as “Le Sphynx,” which has been generously loaned to her from a private sponsor.
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Nancy Zhou, violin
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