David Lockington.

Midori.

SkyBest Mainstage Event:

The Eastern Festival Orchestra

David Lockington, conductor
featuring guest artist Midori, violin

"...Midori's unfailingly sweet yet sturdy renditions of the solo lines hover as if in midair, making for a captivating light-and-dark contrast in both works." - Boston Herald

"Lockington... obviously encourage[s] great attention to detail which show[s] itself in beautifully balanced chords and tightly managed ensemble playing..." - The Modesto (California) Bee

Now in its 47th year, the Eastern Festival Orchestra is comprised of exceptional musicians selected from the top symphony orchestras and faculty of music schools across the nation. Brought together each summer by nearby Greensboro's nationally renowned Eastern Music Festival, these ensemble members also serve on the faculty of EMF's training program for young musicians.

Over the past twenty-five years, David Lockington has developed an impressive conducting career in the United States. A native of Great Britain who began his music career as a cellist, he has served as the Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra since January 1999 and was appointed to the position of Music Director of the Modesto Symphony in May 2007. He is also the former Music Director of the New Mexico Symphony and the Long Island Philharmonic. Mr. Lockington's guest conducting engagements have included appearances with the Saint Louis, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Colorado and Oregon symphonies, the Buffalo, Rochester and Louisiana Philharmonics and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Carnegie Hall. Internationally, he has conducted orchestras in Asia, Spain and Great Britain.

Midori was born in Osaka, Japan in 1971. From a very early age, she was attracted to the sound of the violin played by her mother. When she was four, her grandparents gave her a tiny violin of her own. Three years later, Midori gave her first public performance for an audience in Osaka playing a Paganini Caprice. At the age of ten, she played the Sauret cadenza of the Paganini Concerto for Pinchas Zucherman, inspiring him to announce, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know about you, but I have just witnessed a miracle." The child prodigy has since become one of the world's leading violinists, receiving countless awards and honors, and performing over 90 concerts worldwide each season. Her performance at An Appalachian Summer Festival will feature Brahms' Violin Concerto in D Major. The symphony will also perform Philip Sawyers' The Gale of Life and Sibelius' Symphony No.5 in E-flat Major.

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