A FEW years ago, Nigel Kennedy, or his 'people', decided that he would henceforth be known as 'Kennedy'. No more Nigel or Nige, just 'Kennedy'. It seems that the phase has since passed and it's OK to call him Nigel again. (Only good friends get to call him Nige. ) Why the keenness to abbreviate the name? Is there something more dramatic about only having or using one name?

What about 'Midori', a name you'll be hearing a lot about this week? It has all the connotation of enigma, and even genius, doesn't it? In the case of this lady, such associations are entirely fitting, as her Irish Times Celebrity Concert Series recital at the National Concert Hall next Thursday (15) will prove.

We are not unused to hearing stories of Japanese prodigies but Midori's story is particularly enchanting. She started her violin studies with her mother, whose tape recording of the little Midori playing a Paganini Caprice somehow, and so fortuitously, ended up in the hands of celebrated Juilliard teacher Dorothy Delay.

When Pinchas Zukerman first saw her at the Aspen festival in 1980, a diminutive nine-year-old playing the most infamously difficult repertoire on a half-size violin, he wept openly and announced to the audience afterward, "Ladies and gentlemen? I have just witnessed a miracle."

Three years later, having already made her debut with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, she performed with Zukerman and Issac Stern in the Vivaldi triple concerto. This is not the stuff of even your average prodigy!

Now in her 24th concert season, she returns to Ireland to give the first of five European recitals with pianist Robert McDonald, with whom she has been playing and recording since the duo gave their Carnegie Hall debut 17 years ago.

With an immense programme of Hindemith, Beethoven, Schumann, Webern and Ravel (and more I'm sure), the lucky audience on the 15th will have at least two hours to witness her wizardry. If she made Zukerman cry with her ability on a half-size violin, just imagine what she can do with her 1734 Guarneri.

Speaking of tours, the week ahead will provide us with an opportunity to hear baroque chamber music in live performance with a new Irish ensemble continuing on a nationwide tour that already visited Galway and Dublin this weekend. Armoniosa are a quartet of specialised baroque players, Anita Vedres, Hannah Tibell (violins), Malachy Robinson (violone) and lutenist Richard Sweeney, all of whom play with the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

This afternoon (4pm) they bring their extensive programme - which includes more unusual repertoire from Matteis, Muffat and Bonporti to Handel, Corelli and Telemann - to Castalia Hall, Ballytobin, Co Kilkenny. NUI Cork's Aula Maxima hosts the ensemble as its Friday lunchtime feature on the 16th and the tour ends in the Hunt Museum, Limerick next Sunday (18) in a 6pm start following an optional 4.30pm afternoon tea. How do you serve afternoon tea with a baroque theme then?

Finally, Lyric Opera opens its first series of 2007 this week with Bizet's infinitely popular Carmen on the bill. An opera denounced as "immoral" and "superficial" after premièring in 1875, it charts the downfall of a corporal who falls for the gypsy Carmen's manipulative ways, only to be shunted by her when she takes a whimsical fancy to another man.

The leading lady for the tripartite run, which started last night and continues tonight and Tuesday, is Irish mezzo-soprano Fiona Murphy, a third-year 'young artist' in the Houston Grand Opera company.

Her Don Jose is Kansas native Ryan McPherson, a New York City Opera regular, and other Irish performers include Sandra Oman (Micaela), John Molloy (Zuniga) and Mary Flaherty (Frasquita), not omitting Irish conductor David Brophy. More about him next week.