Midori with AYS conductor Linn Weeda

Past Residencies

Alaska / Duluth / Des Moines / Albuquerque / South Dakota / Vermont / Montana / Winston-Salem

Alaska: October 2004

Over the course of ten days in October 2004, Midori launched the Orchestra Residencies Program (ORP) with visits to the Fairbanks Symphony and the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra. The two orchestras were chosen for the pilot ORP based on recommendations garnered from their relationships to the local youth orchestras.

In Fairbanks, Midori spent her first day working with students from the youth orchestra in chamber groups, coaching the Lathrop High School orchestra, and gave a master class, all before an evening rehearsal with the Fairbanks Symphony. The next morning was devoted to working on the first movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Fairbanks Youth Symphony, followed by a casual Q&A session over lunch. In an unusual treat, Midori performed two concerti with the Fairbanks Symphony: the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos, under the direction of Eduard Zilberkant. Before the concert, Midori had time to stop at a local farm where she met musk oxen and reindeer, both native Alaskan animals. A visit to the orchestra class at West Valley High School and a second master class filled Midori's final day in Fairbanks before traveling to Anchorage.

The first day in Anchorage was dedicated completely to the Anchorage Youth Symphony, conducted by Linn Weeda. After an advocacy luncheon with community leaders, Midori and the AYS threw themselves into rehearsing the second and third movements of the Bruch Violin Concerto for a performance that evening for parents, teachers, and Anchorage Symphony staff and musicians. The concert was even more special in that every AYS musician was able to participate, as Maestro Weeda wrote in parts for the tubas, instruments not included in Bruch’s original score. The rest of Midori's residency included a master class, performances in area elementary schools of Vivaldi's Four Seasons with members of the Anchorage Symphony and Youth Orchestra, and the ASO's season opening concert, in which Midori was the soloist in the Sibelius Violin Concerto.