Midori, violin and Özgür Aydin, piano

Renowned for the expressive agility of her playing, violinist Midori returns to the Series for the first time since 2012 with a program that lends her finely honed touch to songs of mourning and lamentation across cultures. 

Drawing on her ability to summon finesse and purity as readily as warmth and power, Midori builds her program around Poulenc’s Sonata for Piano and Violin, dedicated to the memory of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. Inspired by the poet’s comparisons of countrywide weeping in Civil War-era Spain to the sound of “an immense violin,” Midori expresses a musical tale of loss and bereavement.  

Performing Poulenc’s Sonata alongside Che Buford’s new work Spirituals, Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 1, and Ravel’s “Kaddish” and “Tzigane,” Midori gives voice to expressions of sorrow that depict, as she puts it, “spiritual verities that tie humanity together.”