Davenport, IA - The Quad City Symphony Orchestra and Youth Symphony Orchestra have been awarded a week-long residency by world-famous violinist Midori in the spring of 2011. The Orchestra Residencies Program was created by Midori to support American youth orchestras. The Orchestra Residencies Program is a collaborative project providing meaningful musical experiences for the next generation of classical musicians.
Over a period of five to seven days, Midori will participate in a wide range of activities tailored by the QCSO to optimize local involvement of the youth orchestra, including concerts with both the Quad City Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Such activities include master classes and performance workshops, arts advocacy visits to local legislators, meals with Q&A sessions, and a discussion group with the staffs of both orchestras.
Violinist Midori maintains a blend of worldwide performances, expanding commitment to community engagement, devotion to her various roles at the prestigious University of Southern California, and enthusiastic exploration of new territory that fans, students, and media alike have come to expect from this brilliant and multi-faceted artist. Midori founded Midori & Friends in 1992 in response to serious cutbacks in music education in New York City schools; over the last 16 years, over 150,000 children have benefitted from this program. Midori has also founded a similar organization in Japan, Music Sharing. Music Sharing concentrates on music education for young people with a special focus on both Western classical music and traditional Japanese music, including instrument instruction for the disabled.
2004-05 marked the inauguration of Midori's Orchestra Residencies Program, which will bring Midori to the Quad Cities in 2011. Through this program Midori coaches young musicians, appears at benefits and subscription series concerts and works with both orchestras to raise arts awareness within the community. Orchestra Residencies Programs have been conducted in Alaska (Fairbanks and Anchorage), Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont, Montana, South Dakota, North Carolina, and Des Moines, Iowa.
Midori was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971 and began studying the violin with her mother, Setsu Goto, at a very early age. In 1982, when Zubin Mehta first heard her play, he was so impressed that he invited her to be a surprise guest soloist for the New York Philharmonic's traditional New Year's Eve concert, on which occasion she received a standing ovation and the impetus to begin a major career.
Midori made her first recording at the age of 14 for Philips - she played music of Bach and Vivaldi with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman. She now records exclusively for Sony BMG, which issued two Midori releases in 2008 - an album joining sonatas of J. S. Bach (Unaccompanied No.2 in A minor) and Bartók (No.1 in C-sharp minor, with pianist Robert McDonald); and a 2-CD compilation of catalogue material, Essential Midori.
In 2004, Midori joined the ranks of published authors with the release in Germany of a memoir titled Einfach Midori (Simply Midori), for the publisher Henschel Verlag. In 2007 Midori was designated an official U.N. Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who cited her community engagement work as a model of exemplary commitment to worldwide goals shared by the U.N.
Midori lives in Los Angeles. In 2000, she received her bachelor's degree in Psychology and Gender Studies at the Gallatin School of New York University, graduating magna cum laude, and in 2005 received her Master's degree in Psychology. Away from school and the concert hall, Midori enjoys reading, writing and attending the theater. Her violin is the 1734 Guarnerius del Gesu "ex-Huberman", which is on lifetime loan to her from the Hayashibara Foundation. She uses three bows, two by Dominique Peccatte and the third by François Peccatte.
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