Midori – new Onyx CD (September 2015)

Midori receives APAP 2015 Award (January 2015)

Midori is this year’s winner of the prestigious APAP Award of Merit for Achievement in Performing Arts, which is given each year by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The prize is awarded “to an individual whose genius, energy and excellence have defined or redefined an art form for today’s audiences”, and it includes composer Philip Glass, singer Jessye Norman, and the Kronos Quartet among its most recent recipients.

Midori received the prize on 12 January at the 58th Annual APAP Awards Ceremony in New York, as part of APAP NYC 2015, which gathers presenters from North America and more than 30 countries worldwide.

Midori – Charity concert in Cologne (November 2014)

On 30 November Midori will play to the benefit of Lufthansa’s Help Alliance und “Wir helfen”, together with the Gürzenich Orchester Köln. The program includes Tchaikovsky’s violon concerto, directed by Michael Sanderling.

http://www.guerzenich-orchester.de/konzert/benefizkonzert/130/

Midori: Concerts in Vienna and Washington (October 2014)

Midori – artiste étoile at the Lucerne Festival (August 2014)

As “artiste étoile” of this year’s Lucerne Festival Midori will give the world premiere of a new work by composer-in-residence Johannes Maria Staud, perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and undertake a performance of the complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach on two consecutive days.

22 August, Luzern, Franziskanerkirche
Bach: Sonata G minor BWV 1001
Bach: Sonate C major  BWV 1005
Bach: Partita D minorl BWV 1004

23 August, Luzern, Franziskanerkirche
Bach: Sonate A minor  BWV 1003
Bach: Partita B minor BWV 1002
Bach: Partita E major BWV 1006

25 August, Luzern, KKL Konzertsaal
Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Daniele Gatti
Mendelssohn: Violin concerto

27 August, Luzern, KKL Konzertsaal
Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, James Gaffigan
Johannes Maria Staud: Oskar (Towards a Brighter Hue II)     World premiere

After the recital on 22 August, Midori will be guest at the Lucerne Festival Lounge at the Bourbaki and will meet the Festival’s Executive and Artistic Director Michael Haefliger on 26 August at 18.00 for an artist’s talk.

More information on Midori at the Lucerne Festival.

Midori performs at the United Nations (June 2014)

Midori, named a UN Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2007, visited United Nations headquarters on 3 June 2014. Her chief mission that day was to play a concert for UN dignitaries and staff members, to raise awareness of the important work of the Messengers of Peace program within the UN, and to extend the network of communication and cooperation from the program to other divisions of the organization.

Midori brought with her to the UN three young musicians – GaHyun Cho (violin), William Frampton (viola), and Michael Katz (cello) – who had traveled with her to Myanmar in December 2013 as part of the International Community Engagement Program (ICEP). They were met at the UN that morning by Jeffrey Brez and Jon Herbertsson, two executives of the UN’s Messenger of Peace division, and were escorted to the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, where they played string quartet music (excerpts) for the assembled dignitaries.

Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, welcomed Midori and the other quartet members and introduced Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who explained the crucial importance of the Messengers of Peace program and expressed his appreciation for Midori’s ongoing commitment to the UN and to her community engagement work worldwide. Midori thanked Secretary-General Ban, spoke of their shared belief in the advancement of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and introduced the music from the stage. The quartet performed a brief concert.

Next Midori was ushered to the UN’s onsite television studio, where she made two public service announcements – each shot in both English and Japanese – to be used by the UN in multiple contexts at conferences, summits, in social media, and for public broadcast. The first of these “PSAs” was in behalf of the UN’s Every Woman Every Child program, which works to prevent maternal and infant illness and death worldwide. The second PSA was made for UN Women, a division of the UN devoted to abolishing violence against women and girls.

Midori then met with Mr. Brez and Megan Gemmell, Advocacy and Communications Officer of Every Woman Every Child, and Nanette Braun, Chief of Communications and Advocacy for UN Women, to strategize their efforts going forward.

Midori plays Eötvös in New York (May 2014)

Grammy for Hindemith recording with Midori (January 2014)

The NDR Sinfonieorchester under Christoph Eschenbach were awarded a Grammy Award 2014 in the category “Best Classical Compendium” for their recording of Hindemith’s Violin Concerto – with Violinist Midori as soloist –, the Symphonic Metamorphosis and Konzertmusik for brass and strings, Op. 50.

Midori comments: “I am delighted that Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony Orchestra invited me to play Hindemith’s Violin Concerto as part of their CD tribute to Paul Hindemith, and am very happy that last night this recording won the Grammy for Best Classical Compendium. Hindemith is one of the musicians I respect and admire the most. I hope our recording brings more awareness and appreciation of this great artist.”

The CD was published in August 2013 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Paul Hindemith’s death on the Ondine label.