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Expanding
the World of Music
Note:
due to a family emergency, Midori has canceled events associated
with her scheduled residency at Smith from Monday, March 27,
through Thursday, March 30. Midori and her staff are working
to retain the public recital scheduled for Friday, March 31,
in John M. Greene Hall. for details on cancellations.
 Since
making her well-chronicled public performance debut 24 years
ago at age 10, the violinist Midori has built an astounding
career as a performer, educator, recording artist and music
advocate.
Now, Midori is
one of the world’s leading violinists and has touched
the lives of countless young musicians through her many community
outreach programs.
One of those initiatives,
the University Residencies Program, begun by Midori in 2003,
will bring the legendary violinist to Smith next week, where
she will spend five days in residence coaching student musicians,
working with music faculty, visiting classes, and performing.
Her Smith residency,
which will begin on Monday, March 27, will culminate with
a public recital on Friday, March 31, at 8 p.m. in John M.
Greene Hall, with pianist Charles Abramovic. Midori and Abramovic
will perform works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schoenberg, Grieg
and Lindberg. Tickets will be on sale for the concert in the
Campus Center lower level during the week of her residency
( for details) and at Northampton Box Office (586-8686).
Midori’s
University Residencies Program (URP) is intended to strengthen
connections among artists, students and faculty via brief
residences at the nation’s colleges and universities
by participating artists, of whom Midori is one. Through the
program, Midori has also visited the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, and North Park University in Chicago.
 The
URP is one among several non-profit initiatives launched by
Midori that aim to enhance general musical education and assist
the support of musical performance. At age 20, she began Midori
& Friends, an educational and instrumental instruction
program for public school children in New York City, where
she lives part of the time. She also founded Music Sharing,
a program in Japan that focuses on music education for young
people.
Among her other
non-profit programs are Total Experience, which brings artists
together with audiences and communities; the Orchestra Residencies
Program, in which she works with youth orchestras; Partners
in Performance, which aims to broaden the audience for chamber
music by bringing high-profile performances to small communities;
and her Commissions Program, which supports the careers of
contemporary composers.
Meanwhile, Midori
continues to perform in about 100 concerts a year while splitting
her time between New York City, where she teaches at the Manhattan
School of Music, and Los Angeles, where she serves as the
Jascha Heifetz Chair at the University of Southern California’s
Thornton School of Music.
Charles Abramovic,
who will conduct a piano master class at Smith on Wednesday,
March 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Earle Recital Hall, is a professor
of piano at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music
and Dance, as well as an active soloist, accompanist and chamber
musician, performing throughout the United States, Europe
and Asia.
Nearly a quarter-century
ago, when Midori began her storied career with a debut at
the Aspen Summer Music Festival, a pre-adolescent girl with
a half-sized violin, violinist Pinchas Zukerman, who attended
the performance, “went bananas,” he said.
“I sat there
and tears started coming down my cheeks,” said Zukerman.
“I turned to the audience and said, ‘Ladies and
gentlemen, I don’t know about you, but I have just witnessed
a miracle.’”
Since then, Midori
has performed with and assisted too many musicians to count.
Next week, she will add to that list musicians at Smith.
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