Midori performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Greg Meadors.

Past Residencies

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

Elgin, IL: October 2008

In early autumn 2008, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and Youth Symphonies hosted Midori in her first ORP of the 2008/2009 season. The residency fell over a weekend in which the ESO had planned for three performances, but the parameters of ORP allow for only two concerts by Midori with the adult symphony. The ESO generously invited Midori's student Korbinian Altenberger to perform the Brahms Violin Concerto with them on Friday night, in a "run-out" concert at the Prairie Arts Center in Schaumberg, Illinois.

Over the course of the residency, Midori participated in a variety of community engagement activities, from student chamber music coaching and a music education discussion at Judson University, to an arts advocacy breakfast with community leaders and a staff think-tank summit moderated by League of American Orchestras former President Henry Fogel*. Midori and Korbi worked hands-on with eight student music ensembles at a local high school String Festival. Geoffrey Fushi of the Stradivari Society visited the Youth Symphonies and gave a presentation about instruments' care and traditions.

After Midori's two performances of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Elgin Symphony on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, the residency's final event was the Youth Symphonies' showcase concert on Sunday night. Midori performed three different works with three of the EYSO ensembles: Bruch's Violin Concerto (3rd movement) with the intermediate-level Youth Philharmonia, the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the high-school-age Youth Symphony, and, appropriately, one movement of Vivaldi's "Autumn" from The Four Seasons with the Prelude Orchestra, comprised of students from grades 4-9.

Midori and Henry Fogel chat after the staff think-tank in Elgin. Photo by Greg Meadors.

*Read Henry Fogel's two blog entries about his experience during Midori's ORP in Elgin:
http://www.artsjournal.com/ontherecord/2008/10/midori_and_the_orchestra_resid.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/ontherecord/2008/11/training_administrators_from_w.html