13. December 2018
Violinist and UN Messenger of Peace Midori travels with MUSIC SHARING’s International Community Engagement Program (ICEP) through Vietnam. As every year in the second half of December, ICEP as a non-political foundation brings Western classical music into regions in Asia with limited exposure to it. From December 18-27, ICEP’s touring string quartet performs and interacts with Vietnamese residents. They will visit schools and music schools, orphanages, hospitals, communities and schools for people and children with special needs such as for patients with Hansen’s Disease, as well as the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in and around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. A visit of the touring musicians to Tuyên Quang Province is being coordinated by the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), with field visits and programs in the IFAD projects.
MUSIC SHARING, which was founded by Midori in 1992, focuses on bringing live music to people who are living under special and marginalized circumstances such as resulting from natural disasters, medical conditions, geographical limitations, and economic positions. ICEP, in particular, coordinates and organizes musical presentations into regions in Asia with limited exposure to it.
The touring string quartet, with Midori, this season includes Tatjana Roos (violin), Charlotte Malin (viola) und Alan Toda-Ambaras (violoncello). The young musicians were selected through a rigorous audition process and will travel in June 2019 to Japan for follow-up concerts.
Here you’ll find more information on Music Sharing and ICEP and here about the Touring Party Personnel.
Midori and her team are chronicling their activities in Vietnam on the Music Sharing Blog, which also includes entries from the last travels to India in 2017 and Nepal in 2016. On MUSIC SHARING’s YouTube channel you can also find videos of those last two ICEP tours.
For further information on Midori’s commitment as a UN Messenger of Peace, you can find
- here a video of her visit to Mexico in October 2017, where she played music for the victims of the earthquake in Morelos in September 2017, advocated for the UN’s Sustainable Developmental Goals and gave a master class in Mexico City which she combined with a public interview,
- and here a short video statement of Midori for International Day of Peace 2016.
This year’s ICEP tour is, in part, organized in collaboration with IFAD, the office of the Honorary Consul of Vietnam in Aichi – in commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the Vietnamese-Japanese Diplomatic Relations –, and the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation.
Special thanks go to the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). MUSIC SHARING values the IFAD’s commitment to invest in rural people, empowering them to increase their food security, to improve the nutrition of their families and to increase their incomes.
MUSIC SHARING is a non-political entity and operates solely on generous support provided by individuals, corporations, and foundations. For ICEP Vietnam, these include: Kikkoman Corporation, Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Ltd., Kao Corporation, Saigon Tourist, Hermes Gift Ltd., The Japan World Exposition 1970 Commemorative Fund.
