Midori Residency Week – What is it?
The Dubuque Symphony Orchestra and Dubuque Symphony Youth Ensembles have been awarded a week-long residency by world-famous violinist Midori, which will take place in May 2016. The Orchestra Residencies - Program was created by Midori to support American youth orchestras, and is a collaborative project providing meaningful musical experiences for the next generation of musicians.
Over a five day period in May 2016, Midori will participate in a wide variety of activities tailored to optimize local involvement with the Dubuque Symphony Youth Ensembles, including concerts with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra. Other activities include master classes, school visits, arts advocacy events, and much more.
Who is Midori?
Born in Osaka, Japan, Midori began studying the violin with her mother at a very early age. Legendary conductor Zubin Mehta first heard Midori play when she was just 11 years old, and was so impressed that he invited her to be a surprise guest soloist on the New York Philharmonic’s 1982 New Year’s Eve Concert. What has followed is the tremendous career of a truly superb musician.
Highly in demand, Midori has performed with orchestras around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony, and many others. She also maintains a busy schedule of recitals and chamber music appearances, and is committed to creating new repertoire for the violin by commissioning music from some of today’s most talented composers. Midori commits herself just as fully to bringing music to those who do not have easy access to the arts. To this end, she has founded four organizations over the course of her career, the first of which, Midori and Friends, she started at the age of 21 in an effort to bring music education to underserved neighborhoods in the U.S. and Japan.
Midori is Distinguished Professor and Jascha Heifetz Chair at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, and in 2007 was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Who was Tchaikovsky?
Piotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 in Russia. He began piano lessons at the age of 5, and it is said that within three years he could read music as well as his teacher. However, since music was not considered to be an “acceptable” profession, Tchaikovsky’s parents urged him enter the civil service, which he did. He received his education at the School of Jurisprudence at the St. Petersburg Technological Institute, eventually working as a clerk for the Ministry of Justice. In spite of this, he held an increasing fascination for music, and decided to enroll at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He subsequently chose to dedicate his life to music, resigning his position at the Ministry of Justice. Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow in 1865, taking a position at the Moscow Conservatory teaching music theory. Soon after, he had produced both his Symphony No. 1 in G minor and his first opera, The Voyevoda.
The year 1876 marked a great change in Tchaikovsky’s life. It saw the beginning of the extraordinary relationship between Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck, widow of a wealthy railroad tycoon. Nadezhda von Meck was a great patroness of the arts, and in 1877 she proposed to support him – insisting, however, that they must never meet in person. She arranged a monthly allowance for him, which allowed Tchaikovsky the freedom to resign his post at the conservatory and devote himself entirely to composition. This relationship continued for 14 years, during which they exchanged a voluminous correspondence.
In 1885 Tchaikovsky settled down in a small town outside of Moscow, adopting a regular routine of reading, walking in the forest, and composing. He eventually overcame a longstanding fear of conducting, and in December 1887 embarked on a successful European conducting tour. In the spring of 1891 Tchaikovsky was invited to New York City for the inauguration of the famous Carnegie Hall, at which he conducted some of his music. He continued composing and conducting until the end of his life, conducting the premier of his Symphony No. 6 (“Pathetique”) in late October 1893, days before his untimely death from cholera on November 6, 1893.
A man who was often given to self-doubt about his compositions, Tchaikovsky penned some of the most enduring works in classical music, including the ballets The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, the opera Eugene Onegin, six symphonies, multiple concerti, and the ever-popular 1812 Overture. About Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto
Composed: March-April 1878 Length: 33 minutes Premier date: December 4, 1881
The Violin Concerto is one of the great masterpieces of the genre, and is considered to be one of the most technically difficult works for the violin. Tchaikovsky completed the work in just one month (from late March to early April, 1878) while traveling in Switzerland to escape an ill-advised marriage. During this time he was visited by one of his composition students, the gifted violinist Yosif Kotek, who provided artistic inspiration for the work. On April 3rd Kotek and Tchaikovsky gave the piece a full read through at the piano, after which it was decided that the second movement was “too slight” for such a monumental work. In just one day, Tchaikovsky composed the Andante second movement that has since stood in its place. As a whole, the concerto is remarkable for its melodic inspiration and passionate expression of human feeling.
For a work that has since seen immense popularity, the Violin Concerto did not receive a warm welcome at its first performance. Tchaikovsky originally intended for violinist Leopold Auer to premier the work; however, Auer declared it to be unplayable and would not agree to the premier. Tchaikovsky then moved on to Russian violinist Adolf Brodsky (to whom the work is dedicated), who spent more than two years working on the concerto before he dared to perform it. On December 4, 1881 Brodsky and the Vienna Philharmonic gave the premier performance of the Violin Concerto in Vienna, receiving… less than rave reviews. As has happened to many masterpieces throughout the years, Tchaikovsky’s concerto was savaged by reviewers. One in particular, by Eduard Hanslick, was famously harsh: “It is no longer a question of whether the violin is being played, but of being yanked about and torn to tatters. Whether it is at all possible to extract a pure sound out of these hair- raising acrobatics I do not know, but I do know that in making the attempt Mr. Brodsky tortured his audience no less than he did himself.” He continued on to denounce the final movement, “a finale that transports us into the brutish, grim jollity of a Russian church festival. In our mind’s eye we see nothing but common, ravaged faces, hear rough oaths, and smell cheap liquor.” Luckily, not everyone agreed with Hanslick’s impression of the work, and Tchaikovsky’s concerto went on to take its rightful place among the most celebrated works for violin.
Additional Resources
Midori www.gotomidori.com
Dubuque Symphony Orchestra www.dubuquesymphony.org
Tchaikovsky (biographical information) www.britannica.com/biography/Pyotr-Ilyich-Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckXVmXpk5Zk Learn: http://www.sfsymphony.org/Watch-Listen-Learn/Read-Program-Notes/Program-Notes/TCHAIKOVSKY- Violin-Concerto-in-D-major.aspx