Midori successfully left prodigy status behind and assumed a consistent position in the top rank of international concert attractions. Often associated with
Mehta at first, she has worked with other conductors and orchestras worldwide. An undeniably charismatic performer, Midori has for much of her career remained within the boundaries of the mainstream violin concerto repertoire from
Bach to
Bartók. She has gradually broadened her scope, however, first with recitals (her debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 1990 was recorded), and later with chamber music (her first tour as part of a trio came in 2008, with pianist
Jonathan Biss and cellist
Johannes Moser) and commissions for new works. In addition to her activities as a prominent virtuoso, Midori has also founded and nurtured Midori and Friends, a nonprofit organization providing educational experiences and concerts for underprivileged and hospitalized children. By 2008, the program had benefited more than 150,000 students, and she has supplanted it with a community-oriented chamber music organization called Partners in Performance and a similar group in Japan called Music Sharing. Her work to promote classical music at the community level has taken her as far afield as Indonesia. Midori's numerous awards include both musical and humanitarian honors. She was a winner, in 2001, of the Avery Fisher Prize, and in 2007 United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon named her an official U.N. Messnger of Peace. The holder of bachelor's (magna cum laude, 2000) and master's (2005) degrees in psychology from New York University, Midori holds the Jascha Heifetz Chair at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.