biography

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Midori Seiler, Bavarian- Japanese daughter of two pianists grew up in Salzburg.
Her musical education took her from Salzburg via Basel and London to Berlin. She was tutored by the most varied and distinctive musical personalities: the ‚modern’ instrumentalists Helmut Zehetmair, Sandòr Végh, Adelina Oprean, David Takeno and Eberhard Feltz as well as two specialists for ancient music, Stephan Mai and Thomas Hengelbrock.

As a long time member and one of the concert masters of Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Midori was a leading member during the ensemble’s international breakthrough from 1992 to 2014. Numerous CD recordings from this fruitful period present Midori as a soloist. One outstanding collaboration was Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with dancer and choreographer Juan Cruz de Garaio Esnaola, which was celebrated on stages throughout Europe, the live DVD recording of which was released to critical acclaim.

Between 2001 and 2014, Midori was the concertmaster of Anima Eterna Brugge, which specializes in orchestral repertoire of the classical, romantic and early twentieth- century eras.

Her impressive discography includes the violin concerti by Mozart and Haydn, Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‚Sheherezade’, her own reconstruction of the lost violin concerto by Bach BWV 1052, as well as the complete sonatas for Piano and Violin by Beethoven. A CD of chamber music of Schubert with Jos van Immerseel including the ‚Trout’ Quintett was released in 2015. She received outstanding media coverage for both recordings of Bach’s solo work, the partitas and the sonatas.

Midori Seiler is one of very few violinists of historical performance practice who feel at home at different musical epochs. She is equally comfortable playing baroque violin concerti with orchestras like Budapest Festival Orchestra or Tafelmusik Toronto as she is performing classical or romantic violin concerti with authentic orchestras such as Anima Eterna, Concerto Köln or Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
‚To me, historical performance practice of post-baroque times is a field that has not yet been sufficiently developed. To explore it, with the treasure-trove of knowledge of previous times in my luggage is extremely fascinating.’

As a much-coveted guest director, she will lead two projects with Budapest Festival Orchestra in the upcoming season. Furthermore, she is in demand for leading workshops for orchestras which seek to deepen their understanding and knowledge of historical performance practice (NDR Hamburg, Hamburg State Opera)

The artist is a passionate teacher. From 2013 to 2016, she led the Schwetzinger Court Music Academy with cellist Jaap ter Linden, teaching the music of the southwestern courts of the 18th century to the musicians of tomorrow.
She has given masterclasses in Brugge, Antwerp, Weimar, Verona, Innsbruck, Zürich and Stuttgart.
Between 2010 and 2013 she was professor for baroque violin and viola at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. In October 2014, Midori Seiler was appointed professor for baroque violin and viola at the University Mozarteum Salzburg. ‚Teaching for me is all about unfolding. As a teacher, I am devoted to encourage my students to gain a sense of musical self- reponsibility of the students and in that process I am priviledged to grow as a musician myself.’ Afterwards she returned to Weimar in 2017 as Professor at the Franz Liszt Conservatoire.

In 2015, Midori Seiler was awarded the „Saxonian Mozart Prize“, which ‚acknowledged her responsible artistical and pedagogical work around the oevre of Wofgang Amadé Mozart’.

In 2019, she won the OPUS Klassik for her recording „La Venezia di Anna Maria“ with works from Vivaldi, together with Concerto Köln.

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