Midori

Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator who explores and builds connections between music and the human experience. In the four decades since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11, she has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and has collaborated with world-renowned musicians including Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, and many others.

This season, Midori appears twice at Carnegie Hall, joining the Estonian Festival Orchestra with conductor Paavo Järvi in celebration of Arvo Pärt’s 90th birthday and performing with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Masaaki Suzuki, conductor. Elsewhere this season, she appears with the Boston, Albany and Knoxville Symphonies. In recital, Midori premieres Resonances of Spirit for violin and electronics by Che Buford. Midori’s European engagements include the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra with conductor Christoph Eschenbach, Gewandhaus Orchestra with Maestro Järvi, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony with conductor Michael Sanderling, where she is to receive the Pablo Casals Award from the Kronberg Academy. She makes two appearances in London, in a Wigmore Hall recital and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and tours Asia and South America. Her forthcoming release on Pentatone with Festival Strings Lucerne (expected Spring 2026) features the music of Robert Schuman and Clara Schumann.

As someone deeply committed to furthering humanitarian and educational goals, she has founded several non-profit organizations to bring music to children and underserved communities. In recognition of her work as an artist and humanitarian, she serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and in 2021, she was named a Kennedy Center Honoree.

Born in Osaka in 1971, she began her violin studies with her mother, Setsu Goto, at an early age. Midori recently joined the faculty of the Juilliard School; she is the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Artistic Director of Ravinia Steans Music Institute’s Piano & Strings program.