Charlotte Church notwithstanding, it seems classical music is still one of the rare showbiz channels where a child prodigy has a better than 50-50 chance of cultivating a long, fruitful, and relatively stable career. Then again, 31-year-old violinist Midori has had her share of detractors over the not-so-many years, alternately criticizing her more eclectic and New Age-y ventures and writing off her athletic interpretations as immature and overwrought. But those of us more attuned to the pure energy of a performance than to technical squabbles over tradition and tone are happy to indulge this worldly musical ambassador for a spell. Especially since she consistently goes to generous extremes as an advocate for music education, promoting the arts as a means toward greater understanding and enrichment for kids of all continents. Over three nights at two venues, she’ll guest with the SPCO under the wand of conductor Andreas Delfs, tackling Samuel Barber’s sumptuous Violin Concerto–a piece that was, coincidentally, recorded just a couple years ago by the SPCO with Hilary Hahn, whom we guess you could say represents the next generation of bow-wielding wunderkind. SPCO, (651) 291-1114
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