Simon Callaghan & Midori Komachi
Biography Simon Callaghan & Midori Komachi
Midori Komachi
Japanese violinist, has performed as a soloist and chamber musician extensively throughout Europe and Japan.
Midori studied in Basel, Switzerland at the age of 12 where she was accepted exceptionally as a “Young Talented Student” at the Basel Music Conservatoire. Subsequently she made her debut as a soloist with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Howard Griffiths. Since then she has appeared in some of the world's prestigious venues, including Tonhalle Zurich, Tokyo Opera City Hall, Muza Kawasaki(Japan), Philharmony Warsaw, Wigmore Hall, St.George's Bristol, Rector's Palace (Croatia). She has also given recitals at festivals in the UK, France, Holland and Hungary.
Midori has been broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 'in Tune' along with the release of her acclaimed debut CD ‘Colours of the Heart’ (2014). This release and concert tour was supported by Arts Council England, bringing her 'Delius and Gauguin' project to a wider audience in the UK and subsequently to Japan. The disc gained high praise from many publications; 'Sensitive accounts of music full of sensual allure...(Komachi)judges the sleek, neo-Classical lines of Ravel’s 1928 Sonata to perfection” (The Strad); ‘Komachi has chosen a particularly imaginative approach… (Komachi’s booklet essay) Well worth reading in its own right, it is an added enhancement of a recital in which this violinist more than holds her own’ (International Record Review).
Alongside her performing career, Midori is a bilingual writer for her expertise in 20th Century British composers. Currently she is a writer for her Japanese web column 'London Studio', produced by Studio 18 Japan.
In November 2017, her first book, a Japanese translation of 'Delius as I knew him' (Eric Fenby, 1936) has been published by Artes Publishing in Japan.
Midori is a recipient of numerous prizes, including 1st Prize at competitions Max Pirani Prize and Sir Arthur Bliss Prize, as well as receiving the Friends of RAM/Honorary Patrons' Development Award and MBF Emerging Excellence Award. As an active chamber musician, she has recorded for Metier, Naxos and RAM Labels, and frequently plays with Longbow alongside the Kreutzer Quartet.
In October 2012, Midori completed her Master of Music degree with Distinction at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was supported by the Seary Charitable Trust and the William Barry Trust. Over these years she studied with Maurice Hasson and Tomotada Soh.
Along with her performing career, Midori has founded various concert projects based on several research topics. In 2012, her Delius Project culminated in a series of her concerts in London, Cambridge and Tokyo. This project was featured in the Arts & Collections International Magazine and the Nikkei Newspaper (Financial Times) in Japan. In January 2013 she was awarded the Delius Society Certificate for her performances of the Delius Violin Sonatas.
Since 2012, Midori has developed a cultural exchange project in UK and Japan, introducing works by composers from both countries. For this project she has been supported by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Britten-Pears Foundation, Holst Foundation and Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust. In 2012 she led a series of workshops with composers Nicola LeFanu and Yuka Takechi, and in 2013 worked with Toshio Hosokawa, performing his Elegy for Solo Violin in Tokyo and London to high critical acclaim.
Simon Callaghan
Steinway Artist Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. His recent tours have taken him to Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, throughout Europe and on two occasions to the Banff Centre in Canada. He has performed at all of the UK’s major concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, St David’s Hall Cardiff and Manchester’s Bridgewater and Stoller Halls.
Simon’s interest in rarely performed works has led to invitations to perform concerti by Françaix and Tippett, and to give the first UK performance since 1946 of Medtner’s 3rd Concerto, which he will perform again in 2018. His rapidly-expanding discography includes solo works by Sterndale Bennett, Parry, Sacheverell Coke, chamber music by Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, and two volumes of Delius with Parnassius Duo partner, Hiro Takenouchi (on Somm). In 2017 he released his debut CD for Hyperion’s lauded Romantic Piano Concerto series: the first recordings of Roger Sacheverell Coke’s Concerti with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. The disc reached No.3 in the specialist classical charts, the top ten in the Classic FM chart and garnered enthusiastic reviews across the press.
Festival invitations have included Highgate, Husum, Whittington and Cervo Chamber Music. Callaghan has also has (delete) performed frequently on BBC radio and television. In chamber music he has collaborated with Feng Ning, Jack Liebeck, Giovanni Guzzo, Tim Hugh, Thomas Gould, Raphael Wallfisch and the actors Timothy and Samuel West, and Prunella Scales. His extensive repertoire has included complete cycles of Beethoven and Brahms chamber works, and a three-concert residency at St John’s Smith Square in London, exploring the piano quartet medium. Contemporary music performances have included works by Joseph Phibbs, Julian Anderson and Kenneth Hesketh, and he was invited by the Royal College of Music to play Boulez’s ‘Dérive II’ as part of their ‘Variable Geometry’ series. His world premiere recording of Paul Patterson’s ‘Allusions’ for two violins and piano (with Midori Komachi and Sophie Rosa) was released in 2017.
In 2018 Simon will release two further recordings on Hyperion, return to the Husum Festival of Piano Rarities in North Germany, present a series of Schubert chamber music in London and perform a programme of American music for two pianos for the Americana Festival at St John’s Smith Square, including the European premiere of Irving Fine’s Toccata Concertante. He has also signed with Lyrita Recordings, for whom he will make three recordings in 2018 with Raphael and Simon Wallfisch, Hiro Takenouchi and others.
Simon puts great value on teaching and this season will give masterclasses, lead a course at Benslow Music and continue his work as Head of Piano at the Ingenium Academy (Winchester). In addition to his performing schedule, Callaghan is Director of Music at Conway Hall, where he oversees the longest-running chamber music series in Europe. He is also a PhD Researcher at the Royal Northern College of Music, working to bring the oeuvre of Roger Sacheverell Coke into the public domain.
