A gala concert and dinner will be held on June 14th in Tokyo’s Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa to benefit Midori’s International Community Engagement Program (ICEP).
For more information, to contribute and to purchase tickets
Midori & Friends has launched a new podcast interview series, entitled Changing the Tempo.
The inaugural episode, Spirit of Service with Midori, features Board member Ron Claiborne in conversation with Midori about her introduction to music, her dedication to mastering the violin and her journey to becoming a globally recognized artist. It highlights her musical achievements, the impact of her philanthropic work in music education and her perspective on the transformative power of music.
Listen to Spirit of Service with Midori
On January 18, 2024, Midori received the Brandeis Creative Arts Award at the Slosberg Music Center of Brandeis University from President Ron Liebowitz. The award ceremony was followed by a recital with pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute.
The Brandeis Creative Arts Award recognizes excellence in the arts and the lives and works of distinguished, active American artists. It was established in 1956, eight years after the University’s founding, at a time when there was no comparable award in higher education.
Neal Hampton, director of the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra and chair of the award’s planning committee said, “Midori was selected because of her visionary artistry exhibited over decades of performances in the world’s great concert halls and cultural centers. … Equally important is her impressive work through her non-profit organizations, including Midori and Friends, dedicated to enriching the lives of children by providing tuition-free music education programs in NYC, and Partner in Performance, which brings chamber music to small communities throughout the country. A United Nations Messenger of Peace, and a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2021, Midori’s dedication to building connections between music and the human experience makes her one of the most vital artists of our time.”
Photo credit: Dan Holmes
Midori in recital with Ieva Jakobaviciute following the award ceremony
Midori gave a master class at Brandeis University’s Rapaporte Treasure Hall in early December 2023
After a hiatus during the Covid pandemic, Midori’s International Community Engagement Program activities outside of Japan resumed in December 2023 with presentations and performances in Laos.
Midori was joined by violinist Ellinor D’Melon, violist Hiroki Kasai and cellist Alejandro Gomez-Pareja for a week of activities at schools, vocational centers, hospitals and cultural centers in Vientiane, Muang Xay and Luang Prabang.
The cultural exchange also saw members of the ICEP quartet engage in traditional dyeing and paper making, interviews with students, observance of an alms giving ceremony and a storytelling session.
A follow-up will take place in June 2024, when the quartet will reunite for performances and presentations at schools, hospitals and other facilities for a diverse population in Japan as well as public performances in which they will report on their community engagement activities in Laos.
One work with which Midori has long been associated is Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’).
In 1986, at the age of 14, Midori performed the Serenade with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, the orchestra’s summer home, under the baton of the composer.
During the course of the performance, the E-string on her ¾-size violin snapped. The concertmaster handed Midori his full-size violin, which she played until a string on that broke as well. The associate concertmaster had passed his violin to the concertmaster, who then handed Midori that violin and she continued to play. She never missed a note. It was an astonishing feat of professionalism and display of calm in a fraught situation. The story hit the front page of The New York Times the following day with the headline “GIRL,14, CONQUERS TANGLEWOOD WITH THREE VIOLINS”.
Since then, Midori has played the Serenade numerous times. Most recently, in the Kölner Philharmonie, her performance with the WDR Sinfonieorchester under Constantinos Carydis was recorded and can be viewed here.
In October and November 2023, Midori performs with Festival String Lucerne under its leader Daniel Dodds in Italy and Switzerland before joining the ensemble for a tour of the United States taking them from New York to California.
In Cremona, they perform concertos by J.S. Bach and in Bologna, Rimini and Lucerne, the Violin Concerto by Robert Schumann and Antonín Dvořák’s Romance in F minor.
In the United States their repertoire includes Schumann’s Violin Concerto as well as the Romance in F Major Op 50 by Beethoven, which they recorded for Warner Classics along with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and the composer’s Romance in G Major Op 40, released in 2020.
To follow the tour, please go to Midori’s Concerts page.
The mission of the podcast Speaking Soundly is to offer a window into the soul of today’s premier professional performing artists, to show the process and personal journey of great artists seeking connection, beauty, and spirituality through music.
Speaking Soundly is hosted by Principal Trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra David Krauss.
Midori is this week’s guest on Speaking Soundly.
To listen to the podcast, click below, as appropriate.
Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/cmoE7
Spotify: https://shorturl.at/kryCV
Midori’s nonprofit organization Midori & Friends, dedicated to enriching the lives of children across NYC through high-quality music education programs, recently announced the launch of the Crescendo Circle.
This collective of arts supporters, united by the belief in the power of music to inspire and transform lives, welcomes patrons at various donation levels with donations granting access to a concert series featuring performances by Midori, Jonathan Biss, Yefim Bronfman and Randall Goosby in the 2023-2024 season, among other benefits.
Click the link below to see the performance dates and membership options:
In 2015, 193 countries came together with the UN to agree on a shared plan of action to bring greater peace & prosperity to all people and our planet. Known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), world leaders set a deadline for implementing the SDGs by 2030.
This year -2023- marks the halfway point toward realizing the SDGs by 2030. Yet the SDGs are at grave risk. Climate disasters, gender disparity, economic downturn, and lingering effects of a global pandemic, for example, threaten our chance for a better world.
The good news? The SDGs are still our roadmap out of crisis. When these same leaders, and their successors, arrive at the SDG Summit, this September in New York City, we must remind them of their commitment. At the halfway point, it’s a moment we cannot afford to lose.
Midori has joined with a Circle of Supporters, including her fellow UN Messengers of Peace HRH Princess Haya, Daniel Barenboim, Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall, Yo-Yo Ma and Charlize Theron, to issue a rallying cry for our future and to galvanize their communities to take individual action on the SDGs, re-energize public debate, and impress on governments the urgency to Act Now.
“As a Messenger of Peace, Midori continues to inspire young people through music education to build a sense of community and help advance SDG 4 to provide quality education for all, driven by the vision that music can make the world a better place and improve the human experience.”
CREDIT: Music Sharing
In June 2023, the ICEP Quartet, consisting of violinists Midori and Stephanie Zyzak, violist Erika Gray and cellist Sandra Lied Haga, visited 19 local and special needs schools and hospitals in the Japanese prefectures of Okinawa, Hyogo, Osaka, Wakayama, Nara, Tokyo and Miyagi.
Some of the school children sang for them, others were invited to participate in the music making by making specific sounds along with the music.
CREDIT: Tohoku Broadcasting Company
The ICEP Quartet visits were featured on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK , on the Tohoku broadcasting company and in newspapers including the Okinawa Times and the Sankei Shimbun.
CREDIT: Okinawa Times
Concluding their tour, the ICEP Quartet performed works by Haydn and Mendelssohn at Phoenix Hall in Osaka and Oji Hall in Tokyo.
