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Midori
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Midori is looking for her driver at the airport. She has just flown into New York City to spend a couple days at home between performances and the ride to her place has provided a few minutes for an interview via cell phone. "This week has been a little bit of a trial," she explains.
Now 28 years old, her schedule has been hectic since her debut at age 11 with the New York Philharmonic. "I was just very excited to hear myself with an orchestra," she recalls. Since then she has been splitting her time between recitals and performances with orchestras.
"When I do recitals there is a lot of moving around, but when I do orchestras I get to do two or three nights in one city," she says.
Born in Osaka, Japan, Midori moved to New York 19 years ago. "I've lived in New York for so long, now it's my home." She first picked up the violin at age 4.
"My mother is a violin player," she says. "As a girl, you want to be like your mother, so you imitate her. She was always practicing, so I think that's how I started." Now she finds herself always practicing. "I practice as necessary. That means five hours a day on days that I practice, but I pick up the violin everyday, even if it's just to tune or play a scale," she says. "There's not often a day where I don't touch a violin at all."
In her 17-year career what stands out to Midori is fairly basic: "I think the highlights for me are when I feel connected with my audience." Her musical goals are rather simple, too: "To further express my feelings in my music." Now that she has made it through the years when child prodigies often succumb to burn-out, she shows no signs of slowing down. "I'm very curious. I like to be working on new things," she says.
In the area of "giving back" she's doing pretty well, too. Midori founded her own program to bring music into the classrooms of New York City public schools, the Midori and Friends Foundation. The idea is to aid over-worked and under-funded music teachers with music education through performances by Midori and other professional musicians.
She's even squeezing in a college education, expecting to graduate from NYU with her undergraduate degree in psychology later this year. "I only take classroom classes when I know I'm going to be around," she says explaining how she fits college into her touring schedule. Midori isn't expecting a career change anytime soon. "I am considering grad school," she says.
In contrast to her extraordinary talent, Midori the person seems to be quite ordinary. After touring from September to May, she takes summers off. "In the summer I do whatever I want ... I like lounging on the couch with my dogs, Francie and Willa (named for Willa Cather), and chatting with friends, hanging out," Midori says. She enjoys reading, although right now she's devoting all her time to her textbooks.
Despite her career-related travel, she still visits Japan in her off time. "I go once a year and then, every two years or so, I do a regular tour." Other than that, she likes to stay at home. "In my free time, if I travel, it's day trips out of the city by train," she says.
In one of her last stops before her summer vacation, Midori will perform Beethoven's "Violin Concerto in D Major" with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra this weekend. To appeal to the younger crowd, the CSO is offering student discounts, in addition to a complimentary buffet before the concert on Thursday evening.
MIDORI will perform March 23-25 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall.
