Simon Callaghan & Midori Komachi
Biographie 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
Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a highly successful career as a recording artist. He appears regularly in the UK’s major concert halls, and on tours to Asia, North America and Europe. Callaghan’s recent release of Bennett Concertos with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Martin Yates was Gramophone Editors’ Choice, and received critical acclaim, notably from Presto Music: “his technique is seamless in its command, but always in service to the music so that the fireworks are integral to the musical communication rather than being the focus. It is his commitment to the substance of whatever he is playing that makes Callaghan a persuasive advocate of a wealth of under-appreciated repertoire”.
As concerto soloist, Simon Callaghan has recently collaborated with the Ulster Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Sinfonieorchester St Gallen, with conductors including Jac van Steen, Martin Yates, Modestas Pitrėnas and Martyn Brabbins. Recital partners have included Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jack Liebeck, Coco Tomita, Nicholas Daniel, Julian Bliss, Adrian Brendel, Ben Goldscheider, Feng Ning, Raphael Wallfisch, Ruth Rogers, Samuel West, Prunella Scales and Timothy West. He is also a founding member of the London Piano Quartet, joining colleagues from the renowned Piatti Quartet to showcase the repertoire for piano quartet with a particular focus on revivifying works that have fallen into obscurity.
Simon Callaghan’s distinguished and eclectic discography includes recordings for Hyperion, Somm, Nimbus and Lyrita. He has a strong profile on BBC Radio 3 and on a variety of streaming platforms, his most recent single on Apple Music with Coco Tomita surpassed 1 million streams in its first month. He is a strong social media enthusiast, using it as a form of promotion for classical music in general but seeing it as a particular tool in his advocacy of the rare and unexplored.
Callaghan’s broad repertoire encompasses the standard works of the 19th and 20th centuries and increasingly concentrates on much that is little known, examples including Bernhard Scholz, Josef Rheinberger and Carl Reinecke. A cornerstone of Simon’s work is his commitment to British music, and he has an ongoing series on Lyrita, recording world premieres of British concertos with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Callaghan has also made first recordings of the complete piano music by Rebecca Clarke, George Dyson and William Busch. He has recorded four albums for Hyperion’s celebrated The Romantic Piano Concerto series. His first disc for Hyperion, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins, formed part of his PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music and was praised by BBC Radio 3’s Andrew McGregor: “I have nothing but praise for the performances... impressive pianism”.
In 2020, Simon recorded L’Histoire de Babar with actor Miriam Margolyes. The album received five stars from The Independent, reviewer Michael Church commenting that: “here, thanks to Harry Potter actor Miriam Margolyes’s artistry and Simon Callaghan’s excellent pianism, is Poulenc’s delightful musical response… It lasts just 30 minutes, but my god does it resonate.” Simon Callaghan’s reputation and experience in chamber music led to his appointment as Artistic Director at London’s celebrated Conway Hall, only the sixth incumbent since the founding of the Sunday Concerts series in 1887, and from October 2026 he is also Artistic Director of the Penkhull Festival of Music and Art in Stoke-on-Trent. He is Professor of Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music, and was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012.
