Photo by Allen Aycock

Past Residencies

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

Winston-Salem, North Carolina: May 2007

Following a recital tour of Europe and before two weeks of Music Sharing activities in Japan, Midori visited the Winston-Salem Symphony and Youth Orchestras for a 5-day orchestra residency in mid-May 2007. The 2006/2007 season marked the 60th anniversary of the Winston-Salem Symphony (www.wssymphony.org), which co-sponsors and handles the administration and operations of the Youth Orchestras (www.wsyouthorch.org).

During her stay in North Carolina, Midori collaborated with many young musicians and the professional orchestra in a breadth of repertoire, performing four works altogether. With the Winston-Salem Symphony and conductor Robert Moody, Midori performed the Bruch Violin Concerto and the Bach Double Violin Concerto. In the spirit of the residency, the Symphony titled the program "Young at Heart with Midori" and included Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and the suite from Ravel's Mother Goose. For the Bach, Midori's co-soloists were chosen via a performance competition among the Youth Symphony?s violinists; the winner and runner-up played the first violin part in different concerts.

David Hagy led the Youth Symphony and Midori in Mozart's Fifth Violin Concerto and Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins; a program also shared with special guests invited to an in-school rehearsal.

Community engagement activities ranged from an advocacy luncheon with local leaders and educators and a joint fundraiser for the Symphony and Youth Orchestras, to a pizza party with youth orchestra members and a staff think-tank to further develop collaborations between the two generations of orchestras.