Midori
We are pleased that also Midori will participate for the first time at the 9th International Mendelssohn Festival! Today Midori is recognized as an extraordinary performer, a devoted and gifted educator, and an innovative community engagement activist. Named Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Southern California in 2012, Midori works with her students at USC’s Thornton School, where she is also Jascha Heifetz Chair. She adds a guest professorship at Japan´s Soai University and substantial periods of time devoted to community engagement work. What started with just individual personal appearances by Midori in classrooms and hospitals has blossomed over the last 22 years into four distinct organizations: Midori & Friends, Partners in Performance, Orchestra Residencies Program and Music Sharing.Midori´s enthusiasm for playing and supporting the music of our time has blossomed into a significant and ongoing commitment. Over the years she has commissioned works for a great variety of forces. Over all, the individuals Midori has sought out to create new repertoire for the violin represent an impressive array of some of the most talented of today´s composers, including Rodion Shchedrin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Brett Dean, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Michael Hersch, Peter Eötvös and Johannes Maria Staud.
Midori was born in Osaka in 1971 and began studying the violin with her mother, Setsu Goto, at a very early age. Zubin Mehta first heard Midori play in 1982, and it was he who invited her to make her new legendary debut at 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 (Website): www.gotomidori.com
