Midori travelled to Glasgow in September to perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) and its music director Thomas Søndergård. Their performance is being streamed as part of the orchestra’s Covid-friendly digital season and will be available to watch until Sunday 14 March 2021.

Midori is Artist-in-Residence with the RSNO for the 2020-2021 season. She will also give the world-premiere with the orchestra of a new concerto composed for her by Detlev Glanert in January 2021.

Midori performs these works with the Festival Strings Lucerne on a recording made in early March 2020, just prior to the global pandemic lockdown.

The recording sessions had originally been planned around a concert performance with the orchestra at the KKL, Lucerne’s Culture and Congress Centre, and subsequent concerts in the UK, Singapore, China and Korea, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation or postponement of the entire tour. The Swiss concert was cancelled at less than 48 hours’ notice as Midori and the orchestra were already in the midst of rehearsals.

Midori explains: As everyone’s health and safety were of paramount concern, we were naturally obliged to follow official guidance. Nonetheless, we were grateful to receive permission to move ahead with our recording. Just beyond, a new and dangerous world was lurking … In retrospect, the recording experience felt as if we were racing against the clock, to still be making live music, in direct company of each other, breathing in harmony.

Through all of that, Beethoven guided my colleagues and me, his work focusing and inspiring us, our concentrations heightened, enveloped together in our musical efforts … Beethoven has provided a fortunate focus for me in such fraught times. I am reminded that he was a man of strong beliefs and a morality to which he fully committed, as an activist who took firm stands on many major issues of his day. At the same time, he maintained the discipline that allowed him to create profoundly beautiful, often serene music despite his many personal disappointments and struggles.

Beethoven’s determination still provides a model for humankind, leading us to recognize the best in our world as we reach toward the many achievements of which we are all potentially capable. Finding my place, as a musician, interpreting several of Beethoven’s masterpieces, grounds and inspires me today, as we all face many challenges ahead.

As the music world celebrates the 100^th anniversary of Isaac Stern’s birth, Midori, who was mentored as a young artist by the legendary violinist, joins the commemoration in words and in music.

Midori is featured in the July 2020 issue of The Strad magazine in which she says, among other things, “My students today will tell you how often I mention Mr. Stern, especially when we come to a certain passage that reminds me of something he taught me. I miss him   very much. Of course, I benefited directly from his interest in young musicians, but as I got older, I found out more about the things he was doing outside of playing and teaching.”

On NPR’s Weekend Edition, broadcast on July 19^th,  Midori said of Stern, “He wasn’t somebody who was just playing the violin. He took interest in the world; he took interest in his community; he took interest in the younger generation. He was so committed to giving himself and becoming involved, taking action where he felt that it was necessary.” Listen to the entire segment

Live with Carnegie Hall: Isaac Stern Centenary on July 21st at 2 pm (Eastern Standard Time) is a live stream featuring Midori as well as Emmanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and David, Michael and Shira Stern. Watch it on Facebook or YouTube

The Tanglewood Music Festival holds a Virtual Gala in honor of Isaac Stern on Thursday July 23^rd at 8 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) in which Midori takes part. Attendance is free but viewers must register to watch.