Midori Samson

Biography

Dr. Midori Samson (she/her) is a bassoonist, educator, activist, and scholar. Recent creative activities include collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma and Youth Music Culture Guangdong (China), Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, Mashirika Theater Company (Rwanda), Artists Striving to End Poverty (India), Boston Festival Orchestra and Horizons for Homeless Children, Goodman Community Center (Wisconsin), Payne County Youth Shelter (Oklahoma), Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Project Tumugtog (Philippines), and Flying Carpet Festival (Turkey). In addition to her role at ISU, she is a member of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and a teaching artist with Arts Ignite (New York).

Midori holds degrees from The Juilliard School, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied both bassoon and social welfare. Her dissertation discusses how musicians can operationalize social work principles as anti-racist and anti-oppressive action. She brings this philosophy to all of her creative activities, including commissioning twelve solo works by composers from across Africa since 2017, composing an electroacoustic album that explores trauma, resilience, and identity, and in her role as Artistic Director of Trade Winds Ensemble, a group of teaching artists that host community engagement residencies with social impact organizations in Nairobi, Chicago, and Detroit.