Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator who explores and builds connections between music and the human experience. In the four decades since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11, she has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and has collaborated with world-renowned musicians including Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, and many others.

This season, Midori appears twice at Carnegie Hall, joining the Estonian Festival Orchestra with conductor Paavo Järvi in celebration of Arvo Pärt’s 90^th birthday and performing with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Masaaki Suzuki, conductor. Elsewhere this season, she appears with the Boston, Albany and Knoxville Symphonies. In recital, Midori premieres Resonances of Spirit for violin and electronics by Che Buford. Midori’s European engagements include the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra with conductor Christoph Eschenbach, Gewandhaus Orchestra with Maestro Järvi, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony with conductor Michael Sanderling, where she is to receive the Pablo Casals Award from the Kronberg Academy. She makes two appearances in London, in a Wigmore Hall recital and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and tours Asia and South America. Her forthcoming release on Pentatone with Festival Strings Lucerne (expected Spring 2026) features the music of Robert Schuman and Clara Schumann.

As someone deeply committed to furthering humanitarian and educational goals, she has founded several non-profit organizations to bring music to children and underserved communities. In recognition of her work as an artist and humanitarian, she serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and in 2021, she was named a Kennedy Center Honoree.

Born in Osaka in 1971, she began her violin studies with her mother, Setsu Goto, at an early age. Midori recently joined the faculty of the Juilliard School; she is the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Artistic Director of Ravinia Steans Music Institute’s Piano & Strings program.

“More than 30 years after bursting on the scene as a pint-size violin prodigy, Midori continues to set an example for how to be an engaged musician in the modern world.” –San Francisco Chronicle

“”Midori’s interpretation, in a word, was simply magical… No encore was needed; the audience was already speechless.” –Houston Chronicle

“Midori’s solos are crafted with beguiling naturalness – floating in the upper register, brawny in the lower –rhapsodic throughout. Everything speaks: dynamic contrasts are strongly etched, the score’s lyrical lines and rhythmic gestures are beautifully matched between soloist and ensemble, and the culminating cadenza burns hot.” –Arts Fuse

“Midori sailed through its treacherous technical challenges, taking her time to communicate its lyrical passages with breathtaking beauty. She phrased with emotion and a pure, sweet tone in the first movement, ending with ethereal sounds high in the stratosphere. Her playing was interior, and every note had meaning… It all seemed effortless. Yet no matter how intense the technical challenges, Midori’s tone on her 1734 Guarnerius del Gesu violinwas always one of beauty.” –Cincinnati Enquirer

“Midori’s is still the singular sound familiar from her long affiliation with the virtuosic standards: big, focused, strongly projected, uncannily smooth and consistent bowing across a broadband spectrum of volume and color.”-Washington Post

“In making Bach’s music her own, note by note, she has come closer to the composer than probably anyone before her.”-Märkische Allgemeine

“Midori’s muscular playing and virtuosic agility are a sight to behold. She gets into her performance with her entire physique, delving into her instrument as if she has toextract the sound from her 1734 Guarneri del Gesù by force.” –San Francisco Classical Voice

“Midori is a violin superstar. The audience love her not only for her technical brilliance and flawless playing, but also her personality.” –Die Rheinpfalz

“Midori’s Bach is radically introverted, as if we could move around inside Bach’s brain… She plays with a sparkling precision that is almost frightening, perfect as a Zen exercise. And yet, even as polished as her playing seems, it is never uniform. It breathes inwardly, painting the inner polyphony dreamily and accurately.” –Kulturradio