Midori became One of the youngest professional classical string musicians of our time, mastering some of the most difficult violin pieces before adolescence. The prodigy continues to play solo performances with world-class orchestras. In her early 20s, Midori founded her first charitable foundation to promote music education. Today, in addition to juggling concert tours and running four nonprofit music organizations, Midori is a violin chair at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, which enrolls more than 1,000 students.
5
Hours a day spent practicing as a child; today she practices 4 to 6 hours a day
1/16
Size of the first violin Midori received from her mother, at age 3, compared with a full-size instrument
1734
Year her Guarnerius del Gesù violin was made
16
CD releases
3
Years of preparation for each new repertoire or music project
100
Headline concerts per year
6
Hours of sleep per night
3
Violins needed to play at her Tanglewood debut at age 14, after twice breaking the E string
23
Minutes to play Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic in 1982 at age 11
This appears in the July 06, 2015 issue of TIME.
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