August 28^th marks the release of Midori’s recording of Spring Cadenzas by American composer Derek Bermel. Her fellow artists are the Grammy-nominated chamber orchestra A Far Cry and young musicians from Boston’s Project STEP (String Training Education Program) conducted by Earl Lee.

Spring Cadenzas was commissioned by Midori in the autumn of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, through her Orchestra Residencies Program. Midori wanted to inspire students and keep them motivated to practice their instruments while isolated at home. The composer had to take into consideration online latency as the idea was to create an opportunity for students to make music together remotely in real time.

Initially, Bermel wrote separate movements for strings and for winds, as orchestral sections began to rehearse separately online.  He later fully orchestrated the work.

Spring Cadenzas has three interlocking movements (i. fields, mountains; ii. wake, butterfly; iii. unknown spring) inspired by nature and by haikus from the 17th-century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō. The work was premiered by six youth orchestras across the U.S. on Zoom and Cleanfeed platforms in the Spring of 2021.

Midori with members of A Far Cry and Project STEP

Music Sharing’s International Community Engagement Program (ICEP) took place in Cambodia over a period of 11 days in December 2025. The ICEP quartet, including violinists Midori and Haerim Oh, violist Andy Park and cellist Annette Jakovcic, reached over 1000 people in and around Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in partnership with 18 local organizations.

The ICEP ensemble had rehearsed throughout the autumn months and reunited in Phnom Penh a few days prior to the ICEP itself. Their repertoire included selections from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals and Haydn’s “Lark” Quartet.

The quartet visited schools, hospitals, institutions and rural homes engaging with and performing for students, teachers, staff, family members and volunteers. Many of the organizations work with vulnerable and disabled people, trying to prevent human trafficking and exploitation, supporting victims and promoting youth development and education. Each visit was geared to the particular setting.

ICEP had visited Cambodia previously, in 2010, and Midori was able to reconnect on this occasion with a number of organizations visited 15 years previously. She was deeply moved to encounter some of the children from 2010, now grown up, and some staff she had met on her earlier visit who attended the latest presentations.

Midori was overwhelmed with emotion on her return to Cambodia. It was actually her third visit, the second was in 2019 just before the Covid pandemic. She found the country had developed dramatically in many ways but many vulnerable populations remained.

After her ICEP experience, cellist Annette Jakovcic reflected that “one of the most touching moments occurred near Siem Reap, where we performed for families in their remote homes. We played outdoors beneath stilt houses. I sat on a wooden stump to play my cello while the families gathered on tarps.  I could feel that every note was met with genuine appreciation…. In the pursuit of technical perfection musicians often succumb to the fear of judgment. This (ICEP) experience reminded me that the true essence of performance is storytelling and the shared joy of music.”

photo at Carnegie Hall © Kaupo Kikkas

Midori joined the Estonian Festival Orchestra and its founder and Artistic Director Paavo Järvi at home and on tour for performances of Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa – Double Concerto for two violins, string orchestra and prepared piano. The work was part of a program in celebration of the Estonian composer’s 90^th birthday.

The concerts, in which Midori played alongside the young Estonian violinist Hans Christian Aavik, took place in Tallinn, Vienna, Zurich, Hamburg and New York’s Carnegie Hall, where the orchestra made its North American debut.

“Despite the immense difference in age, temperament, and experience, the two soloists harmonized stunningly well with each other.” Bachtrack

“Midori had remarkable bow control for a pure, singing tone even when the music was at its most glassy and still.”    The NY Times

In December, Midori joined three young colleagues, violinist Ellinor D’Mellon, violist Charlotte Stickel and cellist Annette Jakovcic, on a musical tour of Nepal under the auspices of ICEP, the International Community Engagement Program. Through collaborations with 19 local organizations in Kathmandu and Pokhara, the ICEP musicians were able to spend time with groups of schoolchildren and with their teachers, with patients and medical personnel in hospitals, and also with residents of several shelters and care facilities. These were wide-ranging experiences, as the ICEP Quartet performed works by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns and Rossini, and in return were treated to various hosts’ renditions of Nepali instrumental music, songs and dances, along with convivial get-togethers over food and conversation.

On the final day of their tour, the ICEP Quartet joined in a United Nations-sponsored event commemorating the Nepalese Civil War, which the UN had helped resolve in 2006. Together with their performance, Midori, a UN Messenger of Peace, and her fellow musicians met survivors of the civil war, learning of that war and of the challenges its participants still face.