Midori has been awarded the Cremona Musica performance prize 2025 at the Cremona Musica International Exhibitions and Festival, in recognition of her life’s work.
After making her debut with the New York Philharmonic and conductor Zubin Mehta aged eleven, Midori has led an illustrious career, collaborating with renowned artists including Yo-Yo Ma and Leonard Bernstein. She currently teaches at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, is the artistic director of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and has established multiple nonprofit organisations including the New York-based Midori & Friends and the Japan-based Music Sharing programmes.
Roberto Prosseda, Cremona Musica’s artistic coordinator, shared the committee’s reason for choosing Midori for this year’s award:
‘Midori has embodied the very essence of what music can achieve: excellence, dedication and human connection. Her artistry is distinguished not only by an impeccable technique and profound interpretative insight, but also by a rare spirituality. Transcending borders, languages and generations, in her hands the violin is not only an instrument – it becomes a voice for humanity itself. Through her tireless commitment to education, outreach and social engagement, Midori has redefined the role of the artist in the 21st century. With her foundations and initiatives across the world, she has brought music to school, hospitals, underserved communities, and young talents who otherwise might never have had the opportunity to experience its transformative power. In honouring Midori with the Cremona Music Award, we do more than recognise an extraordinary performer: we also acknowledge a visionary educator and humanitarian, and a living symbol of how music can heal, unite and inspire. For her lifelong devotion to the highest ideals of art, for her generosity of spirit, and for the luminous example she continues to set for us all, we salute her today.’
Midori expressed her gratitude in accepting the award:
‘Thank you so much for this great honour. It’s always a pleasure to bring my Guarneri del Gesù back to its birthplace, Cremona. The work that I do with young people around the world – bringing live performances to where it may otherwise not be possible to have that access– this is an encouragement that I can continue doing this. I don’t see this as an end of something I’ve already achieved: this is a start, actually, of all the other projects that I can take on in the name of bringing people together through music. So, thank you very much.’
Midori went on to perform an unaccompanied movement of a solo Bach work on her 1734 ‘Huberman’ Guarneri del Gesù, and later that evening gave an open masterclass at Cremona’s Stauffer Academy.
