Midori, renowned violinist, brings the magic of music to children
She was a child prodigy. For the last 30 years, she's been serving the underserved children of NYC
You can sign up at secondacts.bulletin.com/subscribe to get free posts delivered to your inbox each week and read past articles. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
The story has been told and retold for so long that it's practically a legend.
It was July, 1986. Midori Goto, then a 14-year-old violin prodigy, was playing with the Boston Symphony, led by the great Leonard Bernstein. The spotlight shone brightly that warm summer night at Tanglewood, an outdoor venue in the Berkshires mountains of western Massachusetts.
They were playing Bernstein's own Serenade, "a difficult piece played from memory with winning artistic insight by a 14-year old," according to the New York Times account.
"But then in the heat of a long and complex fifth and final moment, (Midori) broke her E string. Which is where the legend begins. With aplomb, she turned to the concertmaster, the first violinist, who handed her his own Stradivarius.
":She proceeded absolutely unfazed," according to the Times story.
But then it happened again. The E string pf the second violin also snapped. The associate concertmaster handed the teenager his own violin.
"Unwilling once again to interrupt the music, she played on, perfectly."
When they finished, the crowd erupted into a wild, cheering standing ovation. Bernstein hugged her. The other musicians hugged her.
"Her triumph Saturday night," reported the Times, "was the kind that goes into the record books."
The front page headline read: GIRL, 14, CONQUERS TANGLEWOOD WITH 3 VIOLINS
The legend was born.
Photo credit: Boston Symphony Orchestra
Born in Japan, her mother started teaching her violin when she was 3. She performed in public for the first time at the age of 6, and made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at 11.
Thirty-six years since that night at Tanglewood, Midori is still performing, no longer a prodigy at age 50, she is considered one of greatest violinists of classical music. Last spring, she was a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center lifetime achievement honor.
"Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator who explores and builds connections between music and the human experience and breaks with traditional boundaries which make her one of the most outstanding violinists of our time," the Kennedy Center citation said.
Midori is not content to be "just" a great musician. She has made it her life's mission to bring music to children who might otherwise never have opportunity to learn an instrument or appreciate the magic of a live music performance.
Midori & Friends, the foundation she created 30 years ago when she herself was still a teenager, has made it possible for children in New York City public schools to study music for free at school and to hear live music spanning a range of musical styles and cultures. Most of these kids served by M&F are Black, Latino and Asian. Many come from the city's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Through M&F, 300,000 children have been able to study guitar, violin, cello, wind instruments, singing, even the ukulele over the past three decades.
Midori is no figurehead at the foundation that bears her name. She is actively and intimately involved in running it. advising it and consulting about its programming. I'm not guessing. I know this because I have served on the board of Midori and Friends for the past six years.
Recently, I spoke to her (via Zoom) about her love of music, her commitment to bringing music and children and, of course, that famous night at Tanglewood.
RC: The Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award, what was that like for you?
MG: It's very humbling. I always thought of these awards and honors given to an artist, that for us, it's a beginning. You have to keep up with what they say you've already done. It's an invitation to do more.
RC: That's a very interesting perspective. You see it rather than retrospectively, looking back over your career, but as an incentive to continue.
MG: To continue. To start new things. To open up new doors. It's almost like being able to piggyback on this move forward.
RC: How often do you practice violin?
MG: That's everyday.
RC: How much?
MG: It depends... During the pandemic, it was extremely difficult. Some of my colleagues felt very unmotivated. They felt very discouraged because there were no live concerts and, in some cases, suddenly to see your worth, your love, your passion, maybe even your reason for being alive so quickly, so suddenly and so easily taken away. Of course, one feels very out of control. Many of my colleagues were discouraged. One could see it that way.
The issue with many of these cancellations, they would (often) wait until the last minute. I then started to carry so many repertoires, so many pieces. The cancellations come very late and you have to be prepared because once they decide to go ahead, it's too late. I can't get ready. I had at one point triple the amount of repertoire than when I am having full-time concerts. I had to be prepared to perform any of these pieces. Ninety-five percent never actually saw the stage.
RC: Is there ever a day when you wake up and say, 'I just don't feel like playing the violin today"?
MG: (pauses. I suspect this concept was profoundly alien to her) I think that's an indication I'm really not feeling well.
RC: You'd have to be really not well to not want to practice.
MG: Yeah. (laughing) It's almost the same thing as I can't get out of bed.
RC: Ah, okay. If you can get out of bed, you can practice. You can play the violin.
MG: Right. Right. Fortunately, I have a set repertoire I need to be preparing for or that I want to be learning, But then, in addition to that, what I think is important for everyone to be aware of is basic exercises, what we call etudes, warmup exercises. Young learners of any instrument, they hate practicing the basics. They just want to enjoy the repertoire. But it's so important to keep yourself in shape. It's so important to make sure that technically you're able to do all the things and this you do by warming up correctly to stay in shape. You're not just going to stay in shape by playing your repertoire. If you think of an athlete, you're not going to stay in shape just by playing the game, the actual game. You have to warm up. You have to train. You have to build your muscles. That's what's going to keep you in shape. So it's like that also in playing the violin.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images
RC: Do you listen to music?
MG: I listen to some music. I'm very curious about a piece I haven't heard or sometimes I remember a recording I really liked in the past and I want to hear it again or I just find things that I don't know and I just love to listen.
RC: Classical music only?
MG: Oh, no, no, no. Different things. I'm particularly interested in folk music. I'm always interested in hearing local musicians when I travel. To Southeast Asia, to some of the underdeveloped regions or developing regions. There's always local performing arts. That's absolutely fascinating. Indian classical music. There are wonderful instruments in Nepal or Bangladesh. Sometimes handmade. It's absolutely fascinating.
RC: If you could or were interested in playing another instrument other than violin, what would that instrument be?
MG: I would sing.
RC: Have you ever sung?
MG: I took some voice lessons, yeah.
RC: Midori and Friends, 30 years. That's a long time and you're a young woman. How did it begin?
MG: I wanted to share what I loved so much, what I felt so strongly about, what I learn so much from when I play music. It's not just about music. You learn so much about so many different things. I wanted to share what I felt so privileged to have had in my life, to have something I cherish so much, to have something that I could concentrate on, to have that experience of having my imagination unlocked. I used to just sit and listen to music or even to sounds and I would imagine stories. Sometimes, I would be traveling and I would see the landscape outside the window and I'd start to hear sounds. It works both ways. And it was such a beautiful experience for me. It's a cliche to say that music opens doors, but for me, it really did. It opened doors of imagination. It opened doors of curiosity and it made me want to learn more. It made me engaged in life. It made me engaged in the world. In the end, I feel it has made me a much more (long pause) thinking person.
RC: Do you remember when you first got the idea of something like what turned out to be Midori and Friends? You were what? 18? 19?
MG: Eighteen. 19. Somebody hearing music, whether it's Mozart or Beethoven or Schubert or whoever it is, they think "Oh, I never heard something like that" or "I didn't know anything about that" That's really the part that made me want to do this, that I could possibly bring these ideas, these pieces of music, that additional knowledge for that person. Knowing how much this knowledge had helped me, I wanted to share it. I wanted to have that opportunity to share and that's how I got the idea.
RC: How do you start something like Midori and Friends? If I was 18. 19 years old, I wouldn't' wouldn't have the slightest idea how to even begin.
MG: And this was the age before the internet. You couldn't Google "How to start a foundation." I knew that I really wanted to share. That was basic. And, again, this is a cliche. People say "Music can heal" and all that, yeah, whatever, I hear that all the time. But I agree with it. Music can really unlock. So, I was looking for opportunities to be able to do that. It wasn't particularly to do with children at that point. But because of this (Tanglewood) incident, that was written about in the New York Times about my breaking my string, it was a stroke of luck making big news. Because of that, the story kept getting repeated in different forms for school children.
One day, I received an envelope full of letters from children who read the story in their reader. It wasn't even a music textbook. It was just a reader. Their teacher had found out I was playing in that town and had encouraged the kids to write to me. In these letters were requests, children saying "I'd love to meet you" or "I'd love to hear your music." That's where it started, that this was a great opportunity, that this was a way where I could get closer to my dream of bringing music to the lives of children, really looking for things you are interested in, pursuing those interests and being engaged, being curious about other things, things you don't normally think about, things you don't normally know about.
I always wanted not to just have this program become "Midori goes to play for children some classical music." I always wanted a diversity of styles of music. These days we're talking about the need to have different perspectives, making sure that different voices are being paid attention to, that different voices can speak up. But, back then, I already embraced the fact that New York was so diverse, that New York was a wonderful place, through music, to get to know about different cultures, different perspectives, different ideas. The reason I set up a foundation was the dream of wanting to share music.
RC: Tens of thousands of children in New York City public schools have had the opportunity to sing or play an instrument thanks to you. You must be very proud of that.
MG: I wish I could do more.
RC: But you've already done a heckuva lot.
MG: There's an expression in Japanese: that it's the tear of a bird. Not a tear of an eagle. It's a tear of a bird. They were talking about a really small bird. It's just less than icing on the cake. There's always going to be children. It's a never ending story unless the world collapses. There's always this new group. I have been able to reach out to a couple (thousand) children a year but there's new ones being born. There's always going to be children.
RC: Why is music, the arts generally, so important to a child?
MG: When I started Midori and Friends, what I wanted was of course to bring this opportunity to get to know music or be introduced to music. I wanted a chance for people to learn about music, so that then they can decide whether they'd like it or not. It's not for me to actually enforce that music is good. I want them to have a choice to make. Without knowing about it, there is no choice. So, in that sense, knowledge is power. I wanted to be a part of that bringing power, to empower people to make that decision.
RC: After 30 years of being asked about this and having it brought up, are you tired of going over that broken string at Tanglewood story?
MG: I get a little tired.
RC: I thought so!
MG: Because I see that it's taken on a life of its own. At the end of the day, I lucked out. It's just the way the stars played out. But it's not a novel idea to break a string on stage. It doesn't happen everyday but it does happen. And so, having gone to the concertmaster to have to borrow his instrument, that's the way it's usually done. So there's nothing novel about it. It just happened at a particular time at a particular place that ended up making it into the news. Having been in the field, it's something I learned, what to do when these things happen.
RC: But you were very young and Leonard Bernstein was standing next to you. Big moment.
MG: Yes. But I also started younger. And I'm grateful in the sense that because of this event, this story made it into the reader of school children and those school children wrote to me. And that's how it became Midori and Friends.
RC: Thirty years. Congratulations.
MG: Thirty years is nothing.
(Website for Midori and Friends is www.midoriandfriends.org)