Speaking a universal language

Midori, planted in front of two chalkboards in a packed high school classroom, sways rhythmically as she draws her bow across her burnished violin. With an upsweep, she finishes a Mozart piece and elicits loud applause.

But she gets even louder and more spontaneous cheers when she says, “To be honest, I was not a very good high school student. I didn’t fail anything” -- this draws groans -- “In college, I was pretty much straight A’s.”

Born in Osaka, Japan, Midori, 31, started playing violin when she was 4, studying with her mother, until she went to play for famed pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Aspen Music School at 9 and a year later went to study with DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York. She made her debut with Zubin Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic at age 11. By high school, she had already launched a major international career to excited reviews.

Midori’s Monday visit to the Music Academy at Hamilton High in Los Angeles is part of her two-week “On Location” residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which ends with performances this weekend at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The residency also has included chamber music concerts with members of the Phil and the American Youth Symphony, a master class at USC, a luncheon for music educators and school administrators and a performance Friday at the Wilshire United Methodist Church.

“This kind of project is a good fit for me,” Midori says. “I like being involved in activities that attempt to bring people together and enhance communication.”

Midori sees it all as education, a particular obsession for her. While maintaining her solo career, she finished a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in psychology and gender studies at the Gallatin School of New York University in 2000 and is now finishing a master’s in psychology there.

She also created a foundation, Midori & Friends, in 1992 to provide New York City public school students with music education at no cost to the stu- dent.

From a grass-roots effort in which she did all the work, the foundation has grown to an organization with a full-time staff of four, up to a dozen teaching artists, a $1-million budget and a tiered series of general music and instrument instruction programs for students in 12 to 15 schools annually; it has reached more than 100,000 children.

The idea isn’t to create future classical music audiences.

“That was nowhere near my thinking,” she said. “I believe that music is something that we should all be able to take for granted, to have in our lives. It’s one of the ways that make each one of us individual and also makes us have an identity as human apart from other living beings, to have the arts as a conscious form of expression.”

Monday’s high school session is typical of Midori’s appearances for Midori & Friends. She plays first, takes questions later.

All of the 80 students packed into the purple rehearsal room are music students, so most of the questions they address to Midori have practical points.

How much do you practice?

“About five hours a day, average. I don’t practice every day. Yesterday, at rehearsal [with the Philharmonic], I played 10 or 11 hours. I took breaks whenever I could, but I’d play three or four hours at a stretch. Rehearsing isn’t practicing.”

How do you practice?

“I always start by warming up correctly. If you’re not relaxed, you can harm yourself. Sometimes I play etudes, sometimes scales, sometimes a piece I’ll be playing, then the main body of work.”

How much did you practice when you were a teenager? Did you go out much?

“I was pretty dedicated when I was 15. When you’re memorizing and rehearsing a difficult piece, you don’t have time for much else.”

What’s your instrument?

“A 1734 Guarnerius del Gesu.” (More gasps.)

What’s the most difficult concerto?

“Every concerto has different difficulties. Mozart, you have to play very beautifully and you have to have an emotional reaction to it so that the audience feels an emotion. The Tchaikovsky is easier to get involved with emotionally, but it’s very difficult. It’s difficult to say which one is the most difficult.”

I love your recording of the Paganini Caprices. When did you start playing them?

“I started when I was 5 or 6, playing them as etudes. It took about two years to do the entire cycle. I recorded them when I was in high school.” (Gasps, again.)

Did you ever get discouraged?

“It’s frustrating trying to get a passage down and finally getting it but coming back the next day and finding it’s not right. But you just have to overcome fears and disappointments. Just get it done.”

What got you interested in studying psychology?

“I was in my 20s when I went into college. I went from high school right into my career. I always wanted the college experience. I expected I’d go for a few semesters and major in something about art. Then I took an introduction to psychology course and fell in love with it and stayed with it for every semester and every summer.”

What’s the connection between psychology and music?

“I never tried to force a reason for why I like psychology. That’s OK. It used to be that people felt that a musician liked math.”

Do you have a role model?

“My best friend. People want me to mention names that are recognizable. But my best friend is my role model.”

Set to talk for an hour, she ends the session with a thank you and bows slightly. The students, transfixed for a minute in her wake, finally start buzzing.

“I saw her at the Phil on Saturday,” said Marshall McDaniel, a senior and a cello player. “Up there, she’s this god. It was kind of interesting to get close. She’s much more down to earth than she seemed onstage.”

“It was a really good experience seeing her play right in front of me,” said ninth-grade violinist Edler Arreortua.

Another violinist, senior Gala Porras, said, “You understand she plays so well because she practices like a whole day.”

Midori returned the compliments the next day.

“I was impressed with how relaxed the kids seemed to be around the arts,” she said. “It’s very clear that they have the arts in their schools as a very important part of their education.”

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Midori

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: Today, Thursday and Saturday, 8 p.m.

Price: $14 to $82

Contact: (323) 850-2000

Also

Where: Wilshire United Methodist Church, 4350 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

When: Friday, 8 p.m.

Price: Free

Contact: (323) 931-1085.