WORCESTER—The Joy of Music Program has even more reason to be joyful.
JOMP, a non-profit community music school located at 1 Gorham St., has been selected to host a Midori Orchestra Residencies Program (MidoriORP) March 3-7 when world renowned violinist Midori rehearses with students in the Joy of Music Youth Orchestra (JYO) and three string ensembles.
JOMP applied and was selected to host a MidoriORP, which is held only once per year with underserved communities.
Caroline Reiner-Williams, JOMP associate director, plays cello for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in Maine and in 2017 Midori conducted an educational residency with that orchestra and the Bangor Youth Orchestra. In late 2024, Reiner-Williams put together JOMP’s application, including a Zoom presentation, to have Midori visit in 2026. Early last year, JOMP learned that Midori would visit.
“I was thrilled,” Reiner-Williams said. “We were so happy. Everyone was celebrating. For a lot of musicians, Midori is just a huge figure that we grew up hearing about.”
Reiner-Williams said Midori is the highest-profile musician ever to work with JOMP. Still, not every youth orchestra member immediately recognized her name, so the program introduced students to Midori by screening videos of her performances during a pizza party.
Now 37, Reiner-Williams has considered Midori an idol since she began taking music lessons at JOMP at age six and her mother took her to a Midori performance at Mechanics Hall.
Midori, 54, was born in Japan as Midori Goto and became a child prodigy. At age 6, she performed in public for the first time. Four years later, at age 15, she and her mother moved to the U.S, she performed at the Tanglewood Music Festival with renowned conductor Leonard Bernstein.
After taking several years off from performing, Midori became one of the world’s most celebrated violinists as well as an educator and humanitarian. She won several music awards and in 2007 she was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace.
The MidoriORP concludes with a concert at JOMP’s Shapiro Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7, featuring Midori as a soloist alongside JOMP students. The concert will not be open to the public, but Midori’s free brown-bag performance and Q&A at noon on Wednesday, March 4, at Mechanics Hall is.
Midori and her teaching team will take part in rehearsals, master classes and coaching sessions with JOMP students. Midori’s busy schedule also includes coaching chamber and string groups at Burncoat High School, performing at the Briarwood Retirement Community with the JOMP Honors Quintet and overseeing a chamber music masterclass at the College of the Holy Cross with students from JOMP, Burncoat, Project STEP and Holy Cross.
“This is a fantastic experience even if you’re not going to be a musician when you’re grown up,” Reiner-Williams said. “It’s something that they’ll always remember.”
Jennifer Griffin Gaul, JOMP executive director, said as a community music school JOMP provides opportunities for students who may not otherwise have been able to take part in youth orchestras.
“When you look at the makeup of our group, it’s really a reflection of Worcester,” Gaul said. “It’s very diverse, it’s all different backgrounds.”
Gaul said she doesn’t know if JOMP students fully understand the significance of the visit of a musician of Midori’s caliber, but she expects them to realize it once she rehearses with them. She also appreciates that Midori uses her teaching as a vehicle for social change.
“I definitely feel like that’s what JOMP is all about,” Gaul said. “It’s certainly what attracted me to JOMP when I took the job (in July of 2022).”
Diego Segura, 18, a junior at Burncoat High, plays the viola at JOMP.
“To me, it’s become a second home,” he said. “I spend a lot of my time here, more than I do anywhere else except school. I think it’s a beautiful place because it allows many, many people from all sorts of backgrounds to have quality music education. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or how much you make. You can still get the same access to resources that you can get at any start-up conservatory or something like that and I find that really special.”
Segura said he found it hard to believe that Midori would be rehearsing with JOMP students.
“JOMP has been a place where people have been playing music for decades,” he said, “and now all of that work has paid off and someone recognized that, which is really special.”
Reiner-Williams’ daughter, Sofia Hernandez-Williams, 12, will play the cello alongside Midori at the brown-bag concert.
“That’s really exciting for me,” Sofia said, “because Midori is a world-famous musician and I always watch her play on stage and always heard about her.”
Sofia feels at home at JOMP.
“It’s a great place where you can get a great education and have lots of great classes and have fun at the same time and be able to hang out and talk with your friends,” she said.
JOMP has more than 50 faculty members, including Timothy Terranella, who has conducted the Youth Orchestra for more than 30 years.
Wendy and Rich Ardizzone founded JOMP for young children in 1986 at the First Unitarian Church. After the church was damaged by a fire, JOMP moved in 2002 to a former nursing home on Gorham Street. Fundraisers and grants paid for renovations, including the construction of the 200-seat Shapiro Center Hall and 22 teaching studios.
Rich still teaches trombone at JOMP and Wendy plays the piano while accompanying students in performances.
JOMP now has 650 students in age from infants to 80. Most are aged 8-18, but there are more than 100 adult students. During the last fiscal year, nearly $200,000 was awarded in tuition assistance to about a third of the students.
JOMP graduates include Max Zeugner, the associate principal bass and Herbert M. Citrin Chair with the New York Philharmonic; Lucas Apostoleris, a composer and jazz drummer in Miami; and Paul Wright, a singer and cellist who co-founded the electrofolk duo Tall Heights with singer and guitarist Tim Harrington. The two Sturbridge natives have released several albums. Apostoleris’s mother, Sue, is JOMP’s registrar.
JOMP is also the home of the Worcester Children’s Chorus and the Seven Hills Symphony made up of retired doctors, nurses and other medical staffers. More than 400 Head Start children visit JOMP for a music field trip each year. JOMP also works with refugees to teach English to the mothers and music and art to their children.
The 35th annual JOMPATHON fundraiser takes place at the end of the month with a student recital at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 29, an honors concert at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, and an all-day student recital marathon beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31. The events are free and open to the public, but donations are appreciated. All funds will support students with financial need.
For more information or to donate to JOMP, visit www.jomp.org or call 508-856-9541. JOMP can also be found on Instagram and Facebook.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
