Past Residencies

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

Great Falls, Montana: March 2007

In the last week of March 2007, the youth and symphony orchestras of Great Falls, Montana, hosted Midori for a five-day residency. A selection from the first implementation of the Orchestra Residencies Program's application process, Great Falls followed through on their stimulating proposal with a flurry of special activities throughout Midori's visit.

For a city of 50,000 people, a remarkable percentage of Great Falls residents are involved in classical music. The two local public high schools have between them nearly a dozen music ensembles, including chamber orchestras, bands and choirs. Symphony concerts are perceived as genuine community events, there is no evidence of the 'elitist' mentality that so often afflicts the genre. Even the local media was excited to report about Midori's Orchestra Residencies Program, with no fewer than ten newspaper articles, two radio interviews, and a television feature on the local evening news. This enthusiasm permeated every musical event and social gathering associated with the residency.

Among many other activities, Midori spent her time in Great Falls preparing for three concerts, two of them with the youth orchestra. The first concert with the GFYO was presented as a weekday matinee for the town's fifth-graders and high-school-age string students from the Northwest quarter of Montana. The hall was filled to capacity, and the audience was rapt as they listened to Midori's performance of the first movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with an orchestra of their peers. A second concert was presented the same night for parents, teachers and neighbors. In the final event of the week, Midori joined the Great Falls Symphony and Music Director Gordon Johnson for a riveting account of Beethoven's great Violin Concerto.

In addition to performances, Midori worked with student quartets and orchestras at two local high schools, as well as with the Great Falls Symphony's resident chamber ensembles, the Cascade Quartet and Chinook Winds. An advocacy presentation took place at the C.M. Russell Museum, where Midori shared the podium with Joan Schmidt, past president of the National School Board Association, to speak about the importance of preserving music education.

Henry Fogel, President and CEO of the American Symphony Orchestra League, joined us in Great Falls for a few days, and wrote his impressions of the residency on his blog.