The Program

Mozart: Violin Sonata in G Major, K. 301
Bartók:  Violin Sonata No. 1 
Bach:  Sonata for Solo Violin in A Minor, BWV 1003
Crumb:  Nocturnes
Szymanowski:  Nocturne/ Tarantella 

The Artists

Born in Osaka, Japan, Midori was first taught the violin by her mother, who discovered her daughter's innate musicality at the age of two when she found Midori humming a Bach theme she had rehearsed a few days earlier.  Midori gave her first public performance at the age of seven, then moved to New York City in 1982 where Midori started violin studies with Dorothy DeLay and in the same year made her concert debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta.  In 1986 came her now legendary performance at Tanglewood that resulted in The New York Times front page headline: "Girl, 14, Conquers Tanglewood with 3 Violins."  

Midori is the recipient of the 25th Suntory Music Award (1993), and in 2001 she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.  With the prize money, she started a foundation program called Partners in Performance.  In the subsequent years, Midori has inaugurated two further community-based projects called the University Residencies Program and the Orchestra Residencies Program.  In 2000, Midori graduated from the Gallatin School at New York University with a degree in psychology, subsequently earning a Master's Degree in psychology from NYU a few years later.  Currently Midori serves as the Jascha Heifetz Chair in Music at USC's Thornton School of Music, where she chairs the Strings Department. Previously, she was on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.  Midori plays on the 1734 Guarnerius del Gesù "ex-Huberman" violin.  For more information on Midori visit www.gotomidori.com.