Midori | |
|---|---|
 Midori at theWhite House in 2021 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Midori (formerly styled as Mi Dori) |
| Born | Midori Goto (1971-10-25)October 25, 1971 (age 54) Hirakata, Osaka, Japan |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument | 1731 Guarneri "ex-Huberman" violin |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Website | midori-violin.com |
Midori Goto (五嶋 みどり,Gotō Midori; born October 25, 1971),[1][2] who performs under themononymMidori, is a Japanese-born American violinist. She made her debut with theNew York Philharmonic at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist at the New Year's Eve Gala in 1982. In 1986 her performance at theTanglewood Music Festival withLeonard Bernstein conducting his own composition made the front-page headlines inThe New York Times.[3][4] Midori became a celebratedchild prodigy, and one of the world's preeminent violinists as an adult.[5][6][7]
Midori has been honored as an educator and for hercommunity engagement endeavors. When she was 21, she established her foundationMidori and Friends to bring music education to young people in underserved communities inNew York City and Japan, which has evolved into four distinct organizations with worldwide impact. In 2007, Midori was appointed as aUN Messenger of Peace. In 2018, she joined the violin faculty at theCurtis Institute of Music. She is also on the faculty of theUniversity of Southern California'sThornton School of Music serving as Distinguished Professor and Judge Widney Professor of Music. She was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.[8][9]
Midori was born Midori Goto[5][10] inOsaka, Japan, on October 25, 1971.[6][11] She dropped her father's surname from herstage 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 Gotō, 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 aBachconcerto 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]
Midori gave her first public performance at the age of six, playing one of the24 Caprices ofPaganini in her nativeOsaka. In 1982 she and her mother moved to New York City, where Midori started violin studies withDorothy DeLay atPre-College Division of Juilliard School and theAspen Music Festival and School.[13][10] As her audition piece, Midori performed Bach's thirteen-minute-longChaconne, generally considered one of the most difficult solo violin pieces. In the same year, she made her concert debut with theNew York Philharmonic underZubin Mehta, a conductor with whom she would later record on theSony Classical label. In 1986 came her legendary performance ofLeonard Bernstein'sSerenade atTanglewood, conducted by Bernstein. During the performance, she broke the E string on her violin, then again on theconcertmaster'sStradivarius after she borrowed it. She finished the performance with the associate concertmaster'sGuadagnini and received a standing ovation. The next day'sThe 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 herCarnegie Hall orchestral debut, playingBartok'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 theProfessional Children's School which she attended for academic subjects.[6][7]
In 1992, she formedMidori and Friends, anon-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 andtraditional 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 andcommunity engagement.[15][18]
In 2000, Midori graduatedmagna cum laude from theGallatin School atNew York University with a bachelor's degree in Psychology andGender 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'sthesis was about pain research. In 2001, Midori had returned to the stage and took a teaching position at theManhattan School of Music.[19] In 2001, with the money Midori received from winning theAvery 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 atUniversity of Southern California's Thornton School of Music where she is holder of theJascha HeifetzChair. She became a full-time resident ofLos 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 nameddistinguished professor at USC, elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts & Sciences, and was awarded anhonorary doctorate in music byYale University.[8][20] Midori wasHumanitas Visiting Professor in Classical Music and Music Education atOxford University 2013–2014.[21] Midori joined the violin faculty of Philadelphia'sCurtis Institute in the 2018–2019 academic year and remains on theUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThornton School of Music's violin faculty as a Judge Widney Professor of Music.[22] She is currently the artistic director of the Piano & Strings program atRavinia's Steans Institute.[23]
In addition to being named Artist of the Year by the Japanese government (1988) and the recipient of the 25thSuntory Music Award (1993), Midori has won theAvery Fisher Prize (2001),Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year award (2002), theDeutscher Schallplattenpreis (2002, 2003), theKennedy Center Gold Medal in the Arts (2010), the Mellon Mentoring Award (2012). In 2007 Midori was named aUnited Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2012, she received the prestigious Crystal Award by theWorld Economic Forum in Davos for "20-year devotion to community engagement work worldwide".[16][20] In May 2021 she was an honoree of the 43rdKennedy Center Honors.[24] In May 2022, Midori was awarded theJohn D. Rockefeller III Award by theAsian Cultural Council alongside artistCai 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.[25]
In September 1994, Midori suddenly canceled her concerts and withdrew from public view. She was hospitalised and given an official diagnosis ofanorexia for the first time.[5] In her twenties, Midori struggled with anorexia anddepression, resulting in a number of hospital stays. She later wrote about these personal difficulties in her 2004 memoirEinfach Midori (Simply Midori), which has been published in German but not English.[26] (It was updated and reissued in German-speaking countries in 2012.[27])[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-brotherRyu and her stepfather Makoto Kaneshiro (Ryu's father, a former violin assistant ofDorothy DeLay) are both violinists.[3][28]
Midori is a 2019 Honoree of theGreat Immigrants Award by theCarnegie Corporation of New York.[29]
Midori plays on the 1731Guarneri "ex-Huberman" violin.[30] Her bows are made byDominique Peccatte (two) andFrançois Peccatte (one).[8][15]
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