Japanese violinist (born 1971)
Midori
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Birth name
| Midori Goto
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Also known as
| Midori (formerly styled as Mi Dori)
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Born
| (
1971-10-25
)
October 25, 1971
(age 52)
Hirakata, Osaka
, Japan
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Genres
| Classical
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Occupation(s)
| Musician
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Instrument(s)
| Violin
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Years active
| 1982?present
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Website
| gotomidori.com
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Musical artist
Midori Goto
(
五嶋 みどり
,
Got? Midori
, born October 25, 1971)
,
[1]
[2]
who performs under the
mononym
Midori
, is a Japanese-born American violinist. She made her debut with the
New York Philharmonic
at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist at the New Year's Eve Gala in 1982. In 1986 her performance at the
Tanglewood Music Festival
with
Leonard Bernstein
conducting his own composition made the front-page headlines in
The New York Times
.
[3]
[4]
Midori became a celebrated child prodigy, and one of the world's preeminent violinists as an adult.
[5]
[6]
[7]
Midori has been honored as an educator and for her
community engagement
endeavors. When she was 21, she established her foundation
Midori and Friends
to bring music education to young people in underserved communities in
New York City
and Japan, which has evolved into four distinct organizations with worldwide impact. In 2007, Midori was appointed as a
UN Messenger of Peace
. In 2018, she joined the violin faculty at the
Curtis Institute of Music
. She is also on the faculty of the
University of Southern California
's
Thornton School of Music
serving as Distinguished Professor and Judge Widney Professor of Music. She was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 2012.
[8]
[9]
Early life
[
edit
]
Midori was born Midori Goto
[5]
[10]
in
Osaka, Japan
, on October 25, 1971.
[6]
[11]
She dropped her father's surname from her
stage name
after her parents’ divorce in 1983, initially performing under the name Mi Dori,
[4]
[7]
then deciding on the single word Midori.
[3]
[6]
Her father was a successful engineer and her mother, Setsu Got?, was a professional violinist.
[6]
[12]
Setsu regularly took young Midori to her orchestra rehearsals where the toddler slept in the front row of the auditorium while her mother rehearsed. One day Setsu heard a two-year-old Midori humming a
Bach
concerto
that had been rehearsed two days earlier.
[3]
Subsequently, Midori often tried to touch her mother's violin, even climbing onto the bench of the family piano to try to reach the violin on top of the piano. On Midori's third birthday, Setsu gave her a 1/16 size violin
[3]
[6]
[11]
and began giving her lessons.
[3]
[6]
[12]
Career
[
edit
]
Midori gave her first public performance at the age of six, playing one of the
24 Caprices
of
Paganini
in her native
Osaka
. In 1982 she and her mother moved to New York City, where Midori started violin studies with
Dorothy DeLay
at
Pre-College Division of Juilliard School
and the
Aspen Music Festival and School
.
[13]
[10]
As her audition piece, Midori performed Bach's thirteen-minute-long
Chaconne
, generally considered one of the most difficult solo violin pieces. In the same year, she made her concert debut with the
New York Philharmonic
under
Zubin Mehta
, a conductor with whom she would later record on the
Sony Classical
label. In 1986 came her legendary performance of
Leonard Bernstein
's
Serenade
at
Tanglewood
, conducted by Bernstein. During the performance, she broke the E string on her violin, then again on the
concertmaster
's
Stradivarius
after she borrowed it. She finished the performance with the associate concertmaster's
Guadagnini
and received a standing ovation. The next day's
The New York Times
front page carried the headline, "Girl, 14, Conquers Tanglewood with 3 Violins".
[3]
[4]
When Midori was 15, she left Juilliard Pre-College in 1987 after four years and became a full-time professional violinist.
[3]
[7]
In October 1989, she celebrated her 18th birthday with her
Carnegie Hall
orchestral debut, playing
Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2
. She made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1990 four days before her 19th birthday. Both performances were critically acclaimed.
[3]
[14]
In 1990, she also graduated from the
Professional Children's School
which she attended for academic subjects.
[6]
[7]
In 1992, she formed
Midori and Friends
, a
non-profit organization
that aims to bring music education to children in New York City and in Japan after learning of severe cutbacks to music education in U.S. schools.
[15]
[16]
Her organization Music Sharing began as the Tokyo branch-office of Midori and Friends and was certified as an independent organization in 2002.
[17]
Music Sharing focuses on education about Western classical music and
traditional Japanese music
for young people, including instrument instruction for the disabled. Its International Community Engagement Program is a training program for internationally chosen aspiring musicians that promotes cultural exchange and
community engagement
.
[15]
[18]
In 2000, Midori graduated
magna cum laude
from the
Gallatin School
at
New York University
with a bachelor's degree in Psychology and
Gender Studies
, completing the degree in five years while also continuing to perform in concerts. She later earned a master's degree in psychology from NYU in 2005.
[1]
[12]
Her master's
thesis
was about pain research. In 2001, Midori had returned to the stage and took a teaching position at the
Manhattan School of Music
.
[19]
In 2001, with the money Midori received from winning the
Avery Fisher Prize
, she established the Partners in Performance program focusing on classical music organizations in smaller communities. In 2004, Midori launched the Orchestra Residencies program in the U.S. for youth orchestras, which was expanded to include collaborations with orchestras outside the U.S. in 2010.
[16]
In 2004, Midori was named a professor at
University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music
where she is holder of the
Jascha Heifetz
Chair
. She became a full-time resident of
Los Angeles
in 2006 after a period of bicoastal commuting and was promoted to the chair of the Strings Department in 2007.
[19]
In 2012 she was named
distinguished professor
at USC, elected to the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
, and was awarded an
honorary doctorate
in music by
Yale University
.
[8]
[20]
Midori was
Humanitas
Visiting Professor in Classical Music and Music Education at
Oxford University
2013?2014.
[21]
Midori joined the violin faculty of Philadelphia's
Curtis Institute
in the 2018?2019 academic year and remains on the
University of Southern California
Thornton School of Music
's violin faculty as a Judge Widney Professor of Music.
[22]
Accolades
[
edit
]
In addition to being named Artist of the Year by the Japanese government (1988) and the recipient of the 25th
Suntory Music Award
(1993), Midori has won the
Avery Fisher Prize
(2001), Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year award (2002), the
Deutscher Schallplattenpreis
(2002, 2003), the
Kennedy Center
Gold Medal in the Arts (2010), the Mellon Mentoring Award (2012). In 2007 Midori was named a
United Nations Messenger of Peace
. In 2012, she received the prestigious Crystal Award by the
World Economic Forum
in Davos for "20-year devotion to community engagement work worldwide".
[16]
[20]
In May 2021 she was an honoree of the 43rd
Kennedy Center Honors
.
[23]
In May 2022, Midori was awarded the John D. Rockefeller III Award by the
Asian Cultural Council
alongside artist
Cai Guo-Qiang
. The John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award is given to individuals from Asia or the U.S. who have made significant contributions to the international understanding, practice, or study of the visual or performing arts of Asia.
[24]
Personal life
[
edit
]
In September 1994, Midori suddenly cancelled her concerts and withdrew from public view. She was hospitalised and given an official diagnosis of
anorexia
for the first time.
[5]
In her twenties, Midori struggled with anorexia and
depression
, resulting in a number of hospital stays. She later wrote about these personal difficulties in her 2004 memoir
Einfach Midori
(
Simply Midori
), which has been published in German but not English.
[25]
(It was updated and reissued in German-speaking countries in 2012.
[26]
)
[8]
[19]
After recovering, she continued to perform and also studied psychology and gender studies at New York University. For a while, she considered psychology as an alternative career, with a focus on working with children.
[5]
Midori's half-brother
Ryu
and her stepfather Makoto Kaneshiro (Ryu's father, a former violin assistant of
Dorothy DeLay
) are both violinists.
[3]
[27]
Instrument
[
edit
]
Midori plays on the 1734
Guarneri
"ex-Huberman" violin.
[28]
Her bows are made by
Dominique Peccatte
(two) and
Francois Peccatte
(one).
[8]
[15]
Discography
[
edit
]
- Bach/Vivaldi: Double Violin Concertos
(
Philips Records
, 1986) ? with
Pinchas Zukerman
(violin, conductor),
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
. Bach's
Concerto for Two Violins in D minor
and
Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major
; Vivaldi's
12 Concertos, Op.3 ? "L'estro armonico" / Concerto No. 8 In A Minor For 2 Violins
- Paganini: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op.1
(
CBS Masterworks Records
, 1989)
- Dvo?ak: Violin Concerto, Romance and Carnival Overture
(
Sony Classical
, 1989) ? with
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
,
Zubin Mehta
(conductor). Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 53; Romance in F minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 11; and Carnival Overture, Op 92.
- Bartok ? Violin Concertos No.1 & No.2
(Sony Classical, 1991) ? with
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
,
Zubin Mehta
(conductor)
- Midori: Live At Carnegie Hall
(Sony Classical, 1991) ? with Robert McDonald (piano)
- Encore!
(Sony Classical, 1992) ? with Robert McDonald (piano)
- Sibelius: Violin Concerto / Bruch: Scottish Fantasy
(Sony Classical, 1994) ? with
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
,
Zubin Mehta
(conductor). Sibelius's
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47
, and Bruch's
Scottish Fantasy
, Op. 46
- Tchaikovsky & Shostakovich: Violin Concertos
(Sony Classical, 1994) ? with
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
,
Claudio Abbado
(conductor); Tchaikovsky's
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major
and Shostakovich's
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No.1 in A minor
- Franck: Elgar: Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, Violin Sonata in A Major
(Sony Classical, 1997) ? with Robert McDonald (piano)
- Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major & Concerto in D Major
(Sony Classical, 2001) ? with
Nobuko Imai
(viola),
Christoph Eschenbach
(conductor and piano),
NDR Symphony Orchestra
- Debussy, Poulenc & Saint-Saens: Violin Sonatas
(Sony Classical, 2002) ? with Robert McDonald (piano).
Poulenc
's Sonata for Violin and Piano,
Debussy
's Sonata in G Minor for Violin and Piano, and
Saint-Saens
's Sonata No.1 in D minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 75
- Midori ? 20th Anniversary Album
(Sony Classical, 2002) ? with
Leonard Slatkin
(conductor),
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
, Robert McDonald (piano)
- Mendelssohn & Bruch Violin Concertos
(Sony Classical, 2002) ? with
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
,
Mariss Jansons
(conductor). Mendelssohn's
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor
, Op. 64 and Bruch's
Concerto No.1 for Violin and Orchestra in G Minor, Op. 26
- Bach Sonata No. 2 in A minor, Bartok: Sonata No. 1
(Sony Classical, 2008) ? with Robert McDonald (piano)
- The Essential Midori
(Sony Classical, 2008)
- Violin Sonatas of Bloch, Jana?ek and Shostakovich
(Sony Classical, 2013) ? with Ozgur Aydin (piano)
- Hindemith: Violin Concerto; Symphonic Metamorphosis; Konzertmusik
(
Ondine
, 2013) ? with
NDR Symphony Orchestra
,
Christoph Eschenbach
(conductor)
- Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin
(Onyx Classics, 2015)
- Beethoven: Violin Concerto & Romances Nos. 1 & 2
(Warner Classics, 2020) ? with Daniel Dodds (violin),
Festival Strings Lucerne
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
McPherson, Angus (June 24, 2016).
"Midori Got?: We don't always need words in order to make friends"
.
Limelight
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
"Midori Got?"
.
Morningside Music Bridge
. Guest Faculty. Archived from
the original
on July 21, 2018
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Schwarz, K. Robert (March 24, 1991).
"Glissando"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
September 25,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
Rockwell, John (July 28, 1986).
"Girl, 14, Conquers Tanglewood with 3 Violins"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
April 3,
2010
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Brookes, Stephen (March 23, 2012).
"Violinist Midori coming to Alexandria to perform ? and to teach young musicians"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
November 15,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Earls, Irene (2002).
"Midori"
.
Young Musicians in World History
.
Greenwood Publishing
. pp. 93?98.
ISBN
9780313314421
. Retrieved
September 24,
2017
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Perlmutter, Donna (April 8, 1990).
"Midori: From Prodigy to Artist : Unlike many Wunderkinder, the Japanese violinist has made the transition from lollipops to limousines"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
November 15,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"MIDORI"
.
Hollywood Bowl
.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
. Archived from
the original
on January 28, 2018
. Retrieved
August 2,
2017
.
- ^
"Midori to join Curtis Institute of Music violin faculty in 2018"
.
The Strad
. June 26, 2017
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
Dobrin, Peter (June 27, 2017).
"Renowned violinist Midori to join Curtis Institute faculty"
.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
Lesinski, Jeanne M. (2004).
"Midori"
.
Contemporary Musicians
.
Gale
. Retrieved
September 24,
2017
– via Encyclopedia.com.
- ^
a
b
c
"Midori Goto"
.
Gallatin School
. Undergraduate Alumni.
NYU
. Retrieved
September 18,
2017
.
- ^
Slominsky, Nicolas; Kuhn, Laura; McIntire, Dennis (2001).
"Midori (real name, Goto Mi Dori)"
.
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
.
The Gale Group
. Retrieved
November 15,
2011
– via Encyclopedia.com.
- ^
Kozzin, Allan (October 23, 1990).
"Review/Music; Near 19 Now, A Maturing Midori Plays Recital Debut"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
November 15,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Midori"
.
The Kennedy Center
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Midori to receive community award in Switzerland"
.
USC News
.
University of Southern California
. January 4, 2012.
- ^
"About Music Sharing"
.
www.musicsharing.jp
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
"International Community Engagement Program (ICEP)"
.
www.musicsharing.jp
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
Ng, David (January 11, 2013).
"Midori is sweet on Los Angeles"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
"Yale awards honorary degree to Midori"
.
Yale School of Music
. May 21, 2012
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
"MIDORI"
.
The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities
.
Oxford University
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
"Midori Goto"
. November 28, 2012.
- ^
"Dick Van Dyke, Garth Brooks, Joan Baez, Debbie Allen among Kennedy Center Honorees"
.
WTOP News
. January 13, 2021.
- ^
"Asian Cultural Council Divides the Prize for Rockefeller Awards"
.
The New York Times
. April 14, 2014.
- ^
Midori (2004).
Einfach Midori
. Berlin: Henschel.
ISBN
9783894874643
.
- ^
Midori (2012).
Einfach Midori
(2 ed.). Leipzig: Henschel.
ISBN
9783894877217
.
- ^
Shull, Chris (October 11, 2009).
"Violin playing a family affair"
.
The Wichita Eagle
. Retrieved
September 25,
2017
.
- ^
"Midori: Music and the Instrument That Makes It"
.
Library of Congress Magazine
. April 20, 2023
. Retrieved
August 17,
2023
.
External links
[
edit
]
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