2024 ICEP in Nepal

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.