Midori Goto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Midori Goto (五嶋 みどり; Gotö Midori) (born October 25, 1971 in Osaka) is a Japanese violinist.
She is usually referred to simply as "Midori" (she dropped the surname in response to the dissolution of her parents' marriage). Midori means "green" in Japanese. She was first taught the violin by her mother, Setsu Goto, who discovered her daughter's innate musicality at the age of two, when she found her daughter humming a Bach theme she had rehearsed a few days earlier. Her brother, Ryu Goto, is also a violinist. He is currently a Houston Young Artist and makes concert performances in Japan, Houston, New York, England, and Eurasia.
Midori gave her first public performance at the age of six, playing a piece from the 24 Caprices of Paganini. She and her mother moved to New York in 1982, and started violin studies under the tutelage of renowned pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. (For her audition piece, Midori elected to play the Bach Chaconne in its entirety.) In the very same year, Midori made her New York Philharmonic debut under the baton of Zubin Mehta, a conductor with whom she would record many concertos under the Sony Classical label. 1985 marks a milestone in Midori's early career as a soloist. Her performance at Tanglewood is now legendary — not only did she break the E-string on her violin twice (she had to borrow violins from the concertmaster and associate concertmaster), but also the conductor, Leonard Bernstein no less, knelt before her in awe and amazement. The next day the New York Times front page displayed "Girl, 14, Conquers Tanglewood with 3 Violins."
When Midori was fifteen years old, she left Juilliard on her own accord. In 1992, she formed Midori & Friends, a non-profit organisation that aims to share music with children who are less fortunate in city schools. In 2001, Midori received the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, an award issued to outstanding musicians only once a year, if at all. With the award money, she started a foundation program called Partners in Performance. The following years have seen Midori inaugurate two more community-based projects called the University Residencies Program and the Orchestra Residencies Program. In 2001, Midori graduated from New York University`s Gallatin School summa cum laude where she studied Psychology.
Midori has been appointed the Jascha Heifetz Chair in Music at the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Additionally, she teaches on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music. She is also working on a master's thesis on pain, in addition to busy performing schedules in major international concert venues year round. She lives in Santa Barbara.
Midori is also a board member of the American String Teachers Association.
