Between November 2nd and 8th, Midori and pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute present a program consisting solely of works by contemporary female composers Olga Neuwirth, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Vivian Fung, Sofia Gubaidulina, including a world premiere by Tamar Diesendruck. The recitals will take place at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, Le Poisson Rouge in New York and London’s Kings Place.
November 2: Washington, D.C. Library of Congress
November 4: New York Le Poisson Rouge
November 8: London King’s Place
On her Facebook page, Midori speaks about the project in general and about each of the works. Please click on the links to watch and listen to these short videos.
Vivian Fung: Bird Song 
Sofia Gubaidulina: Dancer on a Tightrope
Olga Neuwirth: Quasars / Pulsars
Tamar Diesendruck Unruly Strands – World Premiere
Franghiz Ali-Zadeh: Habil-Sayagi
The recital at the New York nightclub Le Poisson Rouge was announced in The New Yorker
 

The ICEP participants who visited Vietnam in December 2018 came together again to share their music making, jointly and individually, in Japan in June 2019. This is the second part of the ICEP experience each year.
Midori, Tatjana Roos (violin), Charlotte Malin (viola) and Alan Toda-Ambaras (violoncello) visited schools, hospitals, welfare institutions, nursing homes and other institutions in Tokyo, Obama, Takamatsu, Tokoyama City and Wadayama. There they played sections from string quartets by Mozart, Puccini and Debussy and, individually, visited classrooms, hospital rooms and other spaces to communicate musically with young children and elderly people in various states of health and awareness.
They blogged about their experiences.
The quartet also gave public concerts in Osaka’s Phoenix Hall and Tokyo’s Oji Hall.
 

Midori will give a master class as part of the 10^th biennial Starling-DeLay Symposium for Violin Studies, which takes place at Juilliard between May 28^th and June 1^st.
In addition to master classes, the symposium includes recitals, pedagogy sessions and opportunities for participants to observe and explore how to nurture and develop exceptional student artists.
The Starling-DeLay Symposium, hosted by Juilliard,  is dedicated to the art of violin teaching and performance. It is part of the Starling-DeLay Institute of Violin Studies, made possible by the support of the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation. The Symposium also continues the legacy of Dorothy DeLay, a member of the Juilliard violin faculty from 1948 until 2002, whose students included Itzhak Perlman, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Sarah Chang, Gil Shaham, Shlomo Mintz, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Brian Lewis, who serves as the symposium’s artistic director.
Tickets to the master classes are $32 and are available by request only at [email protected]  

         Photos  (c) IFAD
Midori performed the Preludio from Bach’s Partita No. 3  in E Major for solo violin at the Annual Meeting of IFAD, the United Nation’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, and made a speech in which she called on Pope Francis and other world leaders in attendance to believe in the transformative power of women and girls in underserved remote communities.
Recounting her recent visit to rural villages in Tuyen Quang province, Viet Nam (video and article), where an IFAD-supported project has been working to improve rural women’s access to training and finance, UN Messenger of Peace Midori said, “What I saw was the power of equality, responsibility, and hope. And the difference people can make when they feel in control.” Midori was in Viet Nam in December 2018 with her International Community Engagement Program.
Midori noted that by having access to rural finance, the women she met said they felt a strong sense of responsibility to participate in building local economies as well as to bring about positive changes in their communities.
In Tuyen Quang province, IFAD has supported women’s participation in farming groups and has increased their access to financial services, markets and private agribusiness investors. As a result, the number of rural households suffering from food shortages has been reduced by 25 per cent.
“By talking with the women, I learned that development isn’t just about financial gain; it’s about seeing a future. The women I met weren’t just thinking about today, they were using their money to educate their children and invest in tomorrow,” Midori told the audience.
“It is a very powerful way to address inequality. When I spoke to the girls in the villages, they told me their mothers and aunts were their inspiration; their role models,” she added.
IFAD development experts have found that when gender inequality is addressed and the underlying barriers for women and girls are removed, it is possible to unlock the potential for all people—men, women, boys, and girls—to be equally valued and to lead productive lives.