December 11, 2001
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents acclaimed
violinist Midori and pianist Robert McDonald
in their Santa Barbara area debut at Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Midori performs at UCSB in her Santa Barbara debut
• One of the world’s best known violinists
• Recent winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize
• Accompanist Robert McDonald has also partnered with Isaac Stern
• A program of Schubert/Liszt, Beethoven, Webern and R. Strauss
• Wednesday, January 16
• 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
• General: $45/$35, UCSB students: $20 (limited availability)
• Patron seating $100 ticket includes a private, post-concert reception to benefit UCSB Arts & Lectures
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

UCSB Arts & Lectures will present the Santa Barbara debut of Midori, heralded as one of the world’s foremost violinists, on Wednesday, January 16 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. For this recital Midori will be joined by her frequent accompanist Robert McDonald on piano. Midori, a child prodigy whose first public performance was with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic when she was just 11, recently won the Avery Fisher Prize for outstanding achievement and excellence in music, an award previously won by Yo-Yo Ma and André Watts. “Midori, unlike many child prodigies, is actually fulfilling the promise of her extraordinary childhood genius,” claimed The Toronto Star after a 2000 concert. “She showed herself to be an artist whose technical mastery served a mature head and an experienced heart.”

In the almost two decades of her career, Midori has worked with topflight artists and orchestras, including Emanuel Ax, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Isaac Stern and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic. She records exclusively for Sony Classical. Her latest release is also a technical first—Sony Classical’s first Super Audio CD (SACD); it is a Mozart program recorded with Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg. Midori has also recorded several discs of violin and piano repertoire with her duo partner Robert McDonald. Two soon-to-released CDs by the pair are sonatas of Bartók, Enescu and Schnittke and music of Saint-Saëns, Debussy and Poulenc.

Midori and McDonald’s UCSB concert will feature Schubert/Liszt: Valse-caprice No. 6, S. 427; Beethoven: Sonata No. 7 in C Minor, Op. 30, No. 2; Webern: Four Pieces, Op. 7 (1910); R. Strauss: Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 18.

Born in Osaka, Japan in 1971, Midori moved to the United States with her mother in 1982 so she could study with famed teacher Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. She became a sensation at 14 while going through three violins because of broken strings while playing Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade” with the composer conducting in front of her. Undaunted, she played flawlessly and kept her composure. Since then she has played prestigious concert halls throughout the world, appeared on the telecast from the 1992 Winter Olympic Games and completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Gender Studies at New York University.

Indeed, education has remained central to her throughout her musical career. In addition to being on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, she established a non-profit educational foundation, Midori & Friends, which brings not only classical but also world music to schoolchildren in New York City. Midori explained her involvement to a Baltimore Sun reporter: “I wanted to find ways in which I could be a member of the community at large, not just the music community, to be in a real sense global...As an organization we are interested in different cultures and the impact music can have on the whole child in a lifelong sense.”

Midori’s accompanist Robert McDonald also teaches as a member of the faculties of both The Juilliard School and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. An active chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Juilliard, Takács and Fine Arts Quartets, while also appearing as a soloist with the San Francisco, Baltimore and Curtis Symphony Orchestras. His wide-ranging discography includes his most recent release, the violin sonatas of Franck and Elgar, with Midori, on Sony Classical.

A Pre-Concert Discussion led by Leslie Hogan, UCSB College of Creative Studies, will be held at 7 pm for ticket holders only. As part of their residency, both musicians will hold Master Classes with UCSB students. Midori’s class will be on Tuesday, January 15 from 4 pm to 6 pm at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, 1535 Santa Barbara Street and is co-sponsored by the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara. Robert McDonald’s class will be on Wednesday, January 16 from 10 am to 12 noon at Geiringer Hall, UCSB Department of Music and is co-sponsored by the UCSB Department of Music. Both classes are free and open to public observation.

Midori is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures; the performance is sponsored by KDB Radio. This residency is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.