Midori’s latest album is released on Orchid Classics
August 28th 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
