November 11, 2024 Sounds of US Festival with Jennifer Koh
By Nicole Lacroix, WETA
"The most important part of life is what we do for others." — Jennifer Koh

We have arrived at an historic turning point as a nation. We have survived a bitter election and are looking towards our 250th birthday in 2026. It is the right time to ask ourselves the important questions: who are we, what do we stand for, what does the future hold, and for each of us, what is our role, our mission in society. Artists excel at interpreting our world and answering these questions for us. Jennifer Koh’s Sounds of US festival couldn’t have come at a better time.

“Sounds of Us” is an immersive new music festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Saturday, November 16, from 1-9 pm. It features over 40 world premiere commissions by the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative in both ticketed concerts and free performances. Jennifer Koh, the creator and curator of the event and founder of ARCO Collaborative, was kind enough to chat with me about the festival.

November 11, 2024 5 Questions to Jennifer Koh and Weston Sprott (Sounds of US Festival)
By Forrest Howell, I Care If You Listen
"Her latest project is curating Sounds of US, a one-day festival bursting with over 40 premieres across eight concerts, including works by composers Angélica Negrón, Nina C. Young, inti figgis-vizueta, and Carlos Simon. Presented by the Kennedy Center, the performances feature artists from various stages of a musician’s life cycle, from pre-college students to established professionals. The choice to include multiple generations of musicians is purposeful and correlates with the themes of the festival’s four mainstage concerts: To Begin, To Believe, To Become, and To Be."

November 10, 2024 Sounds of US is a festival for everyone, and that’s just who’s playing
Sounds of US, a music festival at the Kennedy Center’s Reach campus, will premiere more than 40 pieces over the course of one day.
By Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post
"Koh is hoping for a day of music that opens the ears of new listeners to new sounds as well as fresh perspectives on what American music can and should sound like. 'I feel like as an artist, I take risks all the time, I get criticized all the time,' Koh says. 'We all fail. We're all human. Hopefully, this festival will do well — and then I can do more things like this.'"

November 2024 Sonic Youth
By Michael McCarthy, DC Magazine
Sounds of US celebrates America’s upcoming 250th anniversary with the daylong music fest at The Reach.

November 2024 Things to Do
Washingtonian
Jennifer Koh's upcoming festival Sounds of US.

October 15, 2024 Jennifer Koh seeks innovation and 'artistic risk' in revamping chamber music series
By Olivia Hampton, NPR Morning Edition
Olivia Hampton's NPR Morning Edition segment interviewing Jenny is now available. They discuss her upcoming Sounds of US festival as well as her collaborations with Missy Mazzoli as an "illustration for her visions for the future of classical music".

September 2024 Issue Review: Vijay Iyer: ‘Trouble’ | Jennifer Koh, violin; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose, conductor (BMOP/sound)
Pwyll ap Siôn, Gramophone Magazine
Koh's performance in Iyer's Trouble was reviewed in Gramophone's September 2024 issue. The review was included in Gramophone's Sounds of America, a section focusing on recent recordings from the US and Canada.
"[Trouble] benefits enormously from a finely balanced and nuanced interpretation by violinist Jennifer Koh, who manages to capture the range of emotions expressed throughout."

September-October Issue, 2024 5 Minutes with Jennifer Koh
Thomas May, Strings Magazine
Jennifer Koh's interview feature with Thomas May for Strings Magazine's September-October issue. The two discuss Koh's New American Concerto project, her involvement in Vijay Iyer's Trouble, and more.

June 27, 2024 5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now
By David Weininger, The New York Times
Vijay Iyer: ‘Trouble’ Jennifer Koh, violin; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose, conductor (BMOP/sound)
"The largest work is the half-hour “Trouble,” for violin and orchestra, written for the brilliant Jennifer Koh. It can be heard as a meditation on the relationship of individual to collective: Unlike a traditional concerto, Koh’s nuanced and highly varied sound spinning into and away from a spacious orchestral texture."

March 13, 2024 Jennifer Koh and Missy Mazzoli's Tiny Desk Concert is now streaming!
By Tom Huizenga , NPR
"Hearing this set, in all its rugged delight, feels like we're eavesdropping on something personal -- a fruitful, collaborative friendship between composer and performer that has yielded amazing music."

The duo performed works by Mazzoli set to a reduced arrangement for violin and keyboard.

February 8, 2022 Pano: K-Thought: Cathy Park Hong and Jennifer Koh for UCSB Arts & Lectures
By Charles Donelan, Santa Barbara Independent
"Both Hong and Koh belong to the Korean diaspora, and their projects, although conducted in disparate media, share the intention of giving voice to experiences that have too often been silenced in American culture."

February 5, 2022 Review: Missy Mazzoli heals broken bones, hearts with new violin concerto; Violinist Jennifer Koh led the musical world premiere with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gemma New
By Olivia Hampton, DC Metro Theater Arts
"Both Hong and Koh belong to the Korean diaspora, and their projects, although conducted in disparate media, share the intention of giving voice to experiences that have too often been silenced in American culture."

February 4, 2022 Gemma New brings out a softer side of the NSO
A program of Vaughan Williams and Sibelius also featured violinist Jennifer Koh performing a world premiere piece by Missy Mazzoli
By Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post
"Koh didn’t ride atop the orchestra so much as engage in a prolonged tug-of-war with it — her solos tensing like a tendon within the body of the music. She attacked short solos as if she were sawing through a pipe; elsewhere she strung silvery threads through a dense fabric of dark strings and darting flutes. Her slow-burning centerpiece cadenza was a searing highlight of the evening."

February 4, 2022 Violinist Jennifer Koh to receive honorary doctorate from Cleveland Institute of Music
The Strad
"The degree recognises Koh’s excellence as a performer, her work to grow contemporary violin repertoire and her commitment to diversity in classical music."

December 15, 2021 One of the tracks from Jennifer Koh's newly Grammy-nominated Alone Together album is featured in The New York Times' "25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2021"
By Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
Angélica Negrón: ‘Cooper and Emma’
“Alone Together”; Jennifer Koh, violin (Cedille)
"When the pandemic made in-person performances impossible, the superb violinist Jennifer Koh began an inspiring project to commission short solos, which she premiered online from her Manhattan apartment. “Alone Together” offers the results: 39 strikingly diverse pieces, among them Angélica Negrón’s playful, inventive “Cooper and Emma.”"

September 27, 2021 Jennifer Koh’s Pandemic Project: 39 New Pieces for Solo Violin
Richard S. Ginell, San Francisco Classical Voice
"There are countless tales of musicians who were whacked hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but did anyone think that big-name classical music artists wouldn’t be affected, too? Tell that to star violinist Jennifer Koh, who saw all of her gigs evaporate literally overnight in March 2020 when the shutdowns started. Things got so bad that she had to rely on food stamps, which drew shocked attention in the classical world when The New York Times revealed it.
Yet Koh is nothing if not resilient and self-starting. She conceived a project called Alone Together, in which she asked several of her composer friends to write short solo violin pieces for her, gratis, and then to appoint young “emerging” composers to write some more for a small “micro-commission” fee. Thirty-nine pieces emerged, and all are gathered on a digital album on the Cedille label."

September 24, 2021 Violinist Jennifer Koh on Bach, breaking stereotypes, and being ‘Alone Together’
By David Weininger, The Boston Globe
"It’s perhaps fitting that after such a tumultuous time, Koh finds herself immersed again in Bach. It has been a touchpoint throughout her artistic career, and it is the subject of another important project: “Bach and Beyond,” pairing Bach’s music with 20th- and 21st-century works. (A box set collecting all five volumes of the project has just been released.) It is also music that she plays superbly."

August 30, 2021 Isolated By Pandemic, Violinist Jennifer Koh Nurtured A New Community Online
By Jeff Lunden, NPR Morning Edition
"For her part, Koh says working on Alone Together made her feel less... well, alone. Through the process, she notes, she spent time virtually with composers she might not have met otherwise. "And I felt so lucky during that time that I had this opportunity to meet these 20 wonderful human beings, and wonderful artists, and wonderful composers.""

August 26, 2021 For the Record
By Laurie Niles, violinist.com
Here is the album based on violinist Jennifer Koh's online performance series, "Alone Together," created in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the financial hardship it placed on so many artists and musicians.

August 2, 2021 Activist And Violinist Performs At GBH
By Daphne Northrop, GBH
"There’s a saying that it takes three generations to make an artist — the first generation pulls themselves out of poverty, the second educates themselves and only then are you able to have a generation that can go into the arts. I have so much respect for my mother because she did in one generation what usually takes two generations. She pulled herself out of poverty and she educated herself, so that I can be where I am."

July 21, 2021 A Violinist on How to Empower Asian Musicians
By Jennifer Koh, The New York Times
"A beneficiary of changes to American immigration policies that had placed quotas on nonwhite immigrants, I am the daughter of Korean War refugees. During her childhood, my mother witnessed horrific violence and experienced overwhelming fear and hunger. Although my family’s history is a common one for Korean Americans, it is a part of Asian American history largely ignored in this country. But perhaps even less known is what it is like to be an Asian American woman in classical music."

"I have witnessed throughout my career that those of us who are ethnically Asian but were born, raised or trained in America and Europe, are burdened with the belief that musicians of Asian descent are diligent, hard-working and technically perfect — but cannot understand the true essence of music, have no soul and ultimately cannot be true artists. In the beginning of my career, I was told by an influential conductor — who had never heard me play — that I could never be a true artist because he did not understand Chinese music and therefore Chinese people could never understand classical music."

July 9, 2021 'Alone Together': Hear About The Project Pairing Together Young And Experienced Composers
By Arun Rath, GBH: All Things Considered
"I remember I met Angelica Negron for the first time — on Zoom — learning her piece, and she was telling me how, it was so horrific, she was just watching Instagram videos of these two dogs who play with balloons. And so her piece is called "Cooper and Emma," and it's based on these two dogs who play with balloons on Instagram. So I think we can kind of see how everybody processed that period. And it's helpful, because I think it was — I think, now, looking back, we realize that there are so many systemic inequities, and I think because most of the composers who were commissioned were either people of color, non-binary or non-gender conforming and women, it was interesting meeting them because I could literally see the systemic inequities when we were speaking and learning about what they were going through at that time."

July 6, 2021 MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, July 6 - 12
By Clive Paget, Musical America
4 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Jennifer Koh Performs Works From “Alone Together.” Twenty composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support to carry them through challenging times, agreed to donate a new micro-work for solo violin to violinist Jennifer Koh’s “Alone Together” while also recommending a fellow freelance composer to write their own short solo violin work on paid commission. The result is a collection of 40 works that embody the solo violin music of today. For this performance, Koh performs 19 of the works. Tickets from $8. View here until October 10.

June 24, 2021 Virtual Music Concert: ALONE TOGETHER (Jennifer Koh)
By Connor McCormick, Stage and Cinema
Ms. Koh launched Alone Together in April 2020 as an online commissioning project to bring composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty established composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support to carry them through this challenging time, agreed to donate a new micro-work for solo violin, while also recommending a fellow freelance composer to write their own short solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. The result is a collection of more than forty works that embody the solo violin music of today. The New York Times called the series “a marvel for a time of crisis” and the lineup of composers “more inclusive than anything in mainstream classical music.”

July/August 2021 issue Strings Magazine No. 301, July/August 2021 issue
By Inge Kjemtrup, Strings magazine
"Jennifer Koh's 'Along Together' project captured the pandemic lockdown experience while amplifying underrepresented musical voices"

June 17, 2021 For a Composer, the Final Minutes Are Critical
By Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times
A recent work for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra — “A Body, Moving,” featuring tuba, trumpet and a percussionist who uses a bike pump — saves its most emotive material for its closing minutes. That is also true of Cerrone’s violin concerto for Jennifer Koh, “Breaks and Breaks,” performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2018. (The concerto shares material with the string quartet “Can’t and Won’t,” which was also released as a single last year.)

June 10, 2021 Everything That Rise Must Converge - Jennifer Koh
Council of Korean Americans
"So why am I an arts activist? And why do I fight for inclusivity in music when it would take so much less time and energy to just play another performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. And it’s because of this, this is where I honestly come from. My parents’ history is by extension my own history. And like many of you, I’m the daughter of Korean war refugees. My mother is originally from North Korea and she spent her early childhood walking down the peninsula of Korea through the war, witnessing violence and experiencing overwhelming fear and hunger. And she finally ended up here in Busan as a refugee in this camp. So this history of the traumas of our parents and grandparents are passed to us. And I think ultimately they live within us."

May 13, 2021 Episode 8 - An Honest Look: Jennifer Koh
By InsideOut
"The violinist Jennifer Koh is one of today’s most fearless soloists. In this episode of An Honest Look, she discusses her commitment to keeping classical music vibrant through new commissions, especially by female composers and composers of color; her project “Alone Together,” launched just after the pandemic hit; and how small decisions can change the course of history."

April 9, 2021 Violinist Jennifer Koh, On Bach, Virtual Concerts, Surviving COVID
By Tom Hall, WYPR
"Before the pandemic took hold, she was concertizing around the globe, in constant demand since her debut as a musical prodigy, and widely considered to be one of the most brilliant artists of her generation. But when the pandemic began, bookings vanished. A New York Times profile published the day after Christmas referred to the “Cultural Depression” that Jennifer and legions of other performers were experiencing, as unemployment among performing artists outpaced the rest of the workforce, including restaurant and hospitality workers."

April 6, 2021 Music Gets an Overhaul
By George Gelles, New York City Woman
"On a smaller scale, though no less serious, is the remarkable initiative undertaken by virtuoso violinist Jennifer Koh. Best known as a soloist and chamber musician in constant demand, Ms. Koh, in 2014, founded the ARCO Collaborative. To cite its aims, it “commissions, develops, and produces new musical works that highlight artists of color and women composers in collaborations that bring forth stories previously unheard in western art forms.”"

April 5, 2021 MUSICAL AMERICA (April 5, 2021): Streaming Guide through April 12
By Clive Paget, Musical America
Sunday, April 11
5:30 pm ET: Shriver Hall presents Jennifer Koh. The violinist juxtaposes two of Bach’s landmark works for solo violin with 12 micro-works that she commissioned in 2020 as part of her Alone Together project, a response to the pandemic and the financial hardship it has placed on many in the arts community. Tickets $15. View here.

December 17, 2020 Classical Music in 2020: It Wasn’t Bad After All
By David Patrick Stearns, WQXR
"...Violinist Jennifer Koh commissioned a series of short works, collectively titled Alone Together, streamed from her apartment, one of which directed her to end the piece with a frustrated scream. Yeah! ... The formidable Tyshawn Sorey can write traditionally-slanted works when the occasion calls for it. But his heart seems to be drawn to more experimental realms, as suggested by the anti-virtuosic violin concerto titled For Marcos Balter, which exists in a similar Impressionistic ballpark as Kaija Saariaho. It was premiered November 6 by Jennifer Koh and the Detroit Symphony."

December 17, 2020 To the Rescue This Year: The People Who Put Orchestras Online
By Joshua Barone, The New York Times
“You’re trying to tell the story of the piece,” he said. “You have to figure out how to tell that story visually. So you’re not going to shoot a piece by Tyshawn Sorey the same way you would Dvorak.”

That Sorey work, the recent premiere “For Marcos Balter,” featuring the violinist Jennifer Koh, was filmed with soft lighting and long, slow-moving shots that echoed the score’s shifting textures. “The viewer should be able to sense it,” Mr. Geelhoed said, “but they should never notice it.”

December 2, 2020 Best Classical Music of 2020
By Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
A host of livestreamed concerts, the sounds of silence, time-hopping quartets and at-home divas were among the highlights.
[...]
4. Jennifer Koh
A flood of free streams immediately started, mostly from determined musicians playing from their homes. One ambitious and heartening standout was the violinist Jennifer Koh’s “Alone Together” project, for which she played 40 new solo works, half donated, half commissioned, broadcasting them over Instagram from her apartment in Manhattan.
[...]

November 16, 2020 MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, Nov. 16-23
By Clive Paget, Musical America
Monday, November 16
...6:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Composers in Focus I: Zosha Di Castri. Composer and pianist Zosha Di Castri talks with pianist Orion Weiss and violinist Kristin Lee about motivation, influences, inspiration and her work Sprung Testament, commissioned by Jennifer Koh as a sister piece to Beethoven’s Spring Sonata. Register and view here and on demand for a week.

[...]

Thursday, November 19
...8 pm ET: Library of Congress presents Jennifer Koh. The violinist kicks off her digital residency performing two commissions from the Library’s McKim Fund—Julia Wolfe’s Mink Stole and George Lewis’s The Mangle of Practice—alongside new pieces from her commissioning series Alone Together. Thomas Sauer accompanies. Register and view here....

November 3, 2020 Goings on About Town | Classical Music | Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Steve Smith, The New Yorker
"...Friday brings the world première of Tyshawn Sorey’s “For Marcos Balter,” with the stellar violinist Jennifer Koh as soloist. Both concerts are conducted by Xian Zhang, the dynamic music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra."

November 2, 2020 A fall haul of high-quality classical music streams
By Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post
[...]
Jennifer Koh
If you haven’t already scrolled into installments of her “Alone Together” series of commissions posted through the pandemic, now is a perfect time to point an ear and your browser to violinist Jennifer Koh, who kicks off her digital residency at the Library of Congress on Nov. 19 along with pianist Thomas Sauer, performing a pair of new commissions from the Library’s McKim Fund — Julia Wolfe’s “Mink Stole” and George Lewis’s “The Mangle of Practice” — as well as selections from “Alone Together.”

But you can also catch her a couple weeks prior on Nov. 6 as part of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s reliably strong series of digital concerts, performing Florence Price’s “Five Folksongs in Counterpoint”alongside the world premiere of multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey’s “For Marcos Balter for Violin and Orchestra.” Visit jenniferkoh.com for links to all performances.

October 28, 2020 10 Classical Concerts to Stream in November
By Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
[...]
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m.; dso.org; available through Nov. 22. During a concert of his works last year at the Miller Theater in New York, the composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey, who has little patience with distinctions between genres and styles, described his artistic goal as working toward a model of “music that perpetuates itself.” A new Sorey piece for violin and orchestra, “For Marcos Balter,” receives its premiere during a 45-minute livestream from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, featuring the brilliant violinist Jennifer Koh and the conductor Xian Zhang. Florence Price’s “Five Folksongs in Counterpoint,” arrangements of spirituals for string quartet, opens the program.
[...]

October 25, 2020 Interview and Performance with Jennifer Koh at Lincoln Center
CBS 2 NEWS
Interview: my.tvey.es/n9D6Q
Performance: my.tvey.es/p5LZd

October 5, 2020 VC LIVE | Concert Artists Guild 2020 Virtual Gala
Violin Channel
The program features performances by cellist Jamal Aliyev, percussionist Türker Çolak, vocalist Naomi Louisa O'Connell, pianists Aoife O'Sullivan and Wynona Wan, violinist Jennifer Koh and the VC Young Artist Merz Trio

October 1, 2020 Cornell Concert Series returns with virtual shows
Ithaca.com
...Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together performance video is now available online at http://www.cornellconcertseries.com/. Each episode will premiere on CornellConcertSeries.com at 7:00pm on their respective dates, where it will remain viewable for 14 days. Episodes will be available for future viewing by logging in to the ticketing site, cornellconcertseries.universitytickets.com. ...

September 28, 2020 MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, September 28-October 5
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"...7 pm ET: Cornell Concert Series presents Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together. From April to June, as part of her Alone Together commissioning project, Jennifer Koh premiered new micro-works for solo violin by more than 40 composers. Ten of these works—by Nina Young, Anthony Cheung, Qasim Naqvi, Tonia Ko, Inti Figgis-Vizueta, Tania Léon, Wang Lu, Lester St. Louis, Nina Shekhar, and Missy Mazzoli— are featured in this virtual program. View here...."

September 23, 2020 What's Streaming: Classical - Week Of September 28 – October 4
By BWW News Desk
Broadway World
[...]
Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00 p.m. ET
Jennifer Koh's Alone Together in recital for Cornell Concert Series From April to June, as part of her Alone Together commissioning project, Jennifer Koh premiered new micro-works for solo violin by more than 40 composers. Ten of these works (see below) are featured on her virtual program for the Cornell Concert Series. She says, "Alone Together is an artistic response to the coronavirus pandemic and the financial hardship it has placed on many in the music community. It is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them."
[...]

July 7, 2020 Jennifer Koh Spotlights Composer-Performer Collaborators on Limitless
By Kevin Baldwin, I Care If You Listen
"...Limitless is an impressive array of works performed with dedication and devotion of craft. While Koh commands the performance, she often steps out of the spotlight to let the composer-performer project their own talents. The ultimate result is a truly unique album that allows audiences to experience people, relationships, and collaborations in profoundly tangible ways. It is rare to see an album under an artist’s name focus so much on their collaborators instead of themselves, and Koh deserves an immense amount of credit for finding that space."

June 18, 2020 For Classical Music, Spring Was the Season of Solos
By Joshua Barone, The New York Times
....Ms. Chase was alone on camera, but community was at the heart of her performance — made literal by the closing piece, a recording of Oliveros’s “Tuning Meditation” adapted for Zoom. It has also been the spirit of “Alone Together,” a commissioning and performance project by the violinist Jennifer Koh through her nonprofit, Arco Collaborative.

Created within 48 hours of Ms. Koh’s last concert before the closures began in March, “Alone Together” is her attempt to help artists whose careers are just getting started. “As soon as all this happened, it was like getting PTSD from when I was younger, because I was so poor,” she said in an interview. “If I had lost one single gig, I would not be able to make rent. My immediate reaction was: Oh my God, we have to help the younger generation.”...

June 15, 2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams, 6/15 - 6/22
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"...7 pm ET: Jennifer Koh’s “Alone Together.” Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or institutional support, are donating newly composed works to the project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned. View via Instagram TV and Facebook Live. Subsequently available via YouTube. Related content throughout the week includes composer insights, rehearsal footage, and musical scores posted on social media. Program: Kati Agócs’s Thirst and Quenching, Vincent Calianno’s Ashliner, Patrick Castillo’s Mina Cecilia’s Constitutional, and Sugar Vendil’s Simple Tasks 2...."

June 15, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (June 15, 2020 – June 21, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time. Saturday, June 20 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time

June 8, 2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams, 6/7-14, with Select European Concerts Live
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"....7 pm ET: Jennifer Koh’s “Alone Together.” Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or institutional support, are donating newly composed works to this project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned. View via Instagram TV and Facebook Live. Subsequently available via YouTube. Related content throughout the week includes composer insights, rehearsal footage, and musical scores posted on social media. Program: Kati Agócs’s Thirst and Quenching, Vincent Calianno’s Ashliner, Patrick Castillo’s Mina Cecilia’s Constitutional, and a new work by Sugar Vendil...."

June 1, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (June 1, 2020 – June 7, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time. Saturday, June 6 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time.

June 1, 2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams, June 1-8
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"...7 pm ET: Jennifer Koh’s “Alone Together.” Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or institutional support, are donating newly composed works to the project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned. View via Instagram TV and Facebook Live. Subsequently available via YouTube. Related content throughout the week includes composer insights, rehearsal footage, and musical scores posted on social media. Program: Du Yun’s Windowsills, Shayna Dunkelman (TBD), George Lewis’s un petit brouillard cerebral, and Lester St Louis’s Ultraviolet, Efflorescent...."

May 30, 2020 Classical Music News of the Week
By John J. Puccio, Classical Candor
"Saturday, June 6 at 7:00 p.m. ET: Jennifer Koh's Alone Together series continues with new works by Du Yun, Shayna Dunkelman, George Lewis, and Lester St Louis (re-scheduled from May 30)"

May 18, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (May 18, 2020 – May 24, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time. This week features composer Andrew Norman. Saturday, May 23 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time

May 18, 2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams, 5/18-5/24
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"Saturday, May 23, 7 pm ET: Jennifer Koh’s “Alone Together.” Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or institutional support, are donating newly composed works to the project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned. View via Instagram TV and Facebook Live. Subsequently available via YouTube. Related content throughout the week includes composer insights, rehearsal footage, and musical scores posted on social media. Program: Nina Shekhar’s warm in my veins, Ted Hearne’s THE SPACE BETWEEN AKA DON’T MAKE ME SOCIAL DISTANCE ANYMORE, Qasim Naqvi’s HAL, and Caroline Davis’s heart rituals."

May 17, 2020 What does the coronavirus sound like? Classical music composers answer with strings ... and screams
By David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"...All the Rage is just one of the 40-and-counting short pieces for unaccompanied violin that Koh has commissioned in recent weeks through her nonprofit Arco Collaborative. These new works — running anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes — are written not for next month or next year but to be premiered now in her weekly Facebook Live programs each Saturday...."

May 13, 2020 What’s Streaming: Classical (Week of May 18–24)
DON411
Saturday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m. ET: Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together series continues with new works by Caroline Davis, Ted Hearne, Qasim Naqvi, and Nina Shekhar Every Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET, violinist Jennifer Koh premieres new micro-works for solo violin as part of her and non-profit ARCO Collaborative’s Alone Together series. Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support to carry them through this challenging time, are donating newly composed works to the project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned. Learn more here.

May 23 program:
Nina Shekhar’s warm in my veins
Ted Hearne’s THE SPACE BETWEEN AKA DON’T MAKE ME SOCIAL DISTANCE ANYMORE
Qasim Naqvi’s HAL
Caroline Davis’s heart rituals
WHERE TO WATCH: Jennifer Koh’s Facebook & Instagram

May 12, 2020 Jennifer Koh introduces "Alone Together"
YOUNG ARTS Blog
Joining in the effort to generate vital emergency relief for artists during the pandemic, acclaimed violinist Jennifer Koh (1994 YoungArts Winner in Classical Music & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts) has created the Alone Together commissioning project and performance series. “Our musical community has given me a sense of hope and light during these difficult times” says Koh. “Alone Together celebrates and supports our community creatively. We will look back at this time and be proud that we used this time to help other artists. And we can give ourselves and others solace by sharing creative space and giving artistic voice to our collective, universal experience during COVID-19.”...

May 11, 2020 30 Seconds Felt Like Something That Was Manageable...
By Elaine Diehl, WGUC MUSIC BLOG CLEF NOTES
Violinist Jennifer Koh was having a spectacular year... concerts, Master classes, and the world premiere of a brand-new work – a collaboration with Davone Tines based on her Mother’s experiences as a refugee child in South Korea and his grandfather’s life as a sharecopper. Then came the Pandemic. The world turned upside down, Jennifer’s bookings were obliterated, and she found herself locked down in her New York apartment.
I spoke with Jennifer Koh on April 17, the day that should have seen the premiere of, Everything That Rises Must Converge. We talked about the world situation, in particular, how it impacted the Arts and how she created a way to help her fellow musicians with her Alone Together project.
When everything seemed impossible, she said, “30 Seconds felt like something that was manageable.”
Here’s our chat...

May 11, 2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams 5/11-5/17
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"Friday, May 15 ...3 pm ET: YoungArts presents a conversation with violinist Jennifer Koh and composer, educator and advocate Andrew Norman. Koh launched Alone Together, a commissioning project and performance series, as an artistic response to the coronavirus pandemic and the financial hardship it has placed on many in the music community. Norman and Koh will discuss how this initiative is supporting freelance composers, offer advice for emerging artists, and share stories about their creative practices."

May 11, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (May 11, 2020 – May 17, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time. This week features composer Andrew Norman. Saturday, May 16 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time

May 6, 2020 Classical Programming Streaming The Week Of May 11–17
By BWW News Desk
Broadway World
"Saturday, May 16 at 7:00 p.m. ET: Jennifer Koh's Alone Together series continues with Part VII Latest episode of Alone Together (May 2)
Every Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET, violinist Jennifer Koh premieres new micro-works for solo violin as part of her and non-profit ARCO Collaborative's Alone Together series. Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support to carry them through this challenging time, are donating newly composed works to the project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned."

May 6, 2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams, 5/6-5/12
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"7 pm ET: Jennifer Koh’s “Alone Together.” Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support to carry them through this challenging time, are donating newly composed works to the project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned. View via Instagram TV and Facebook Live. Subsequently available via YouTube. She will also share related content throughout the week, including composer insights, rehearsal footage, and musical scores posted on social media."

May 4, 2020 Pianist And Composer Conrad Tao to Appear Live With YoungArts
By BWW News Desk
Broadway World
"...The following week, Andrew Norman (1998 YoungArts Winner in Classical Music) and Jennifer Koh (1994 YoungArts Winner in Classical Music) will host an online talk for young composers offering advice and suggestions in these challenging times based on their experience. Last by not least, on May 16, Koh will perform one of Norman's compositions in her ALONE TOGETHER livestream series, supported by YoungArts as a commissioning partner..."

May 4, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (May 4, 2020 – May 10, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time.
Saturday, May 9 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time

April 29, 2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams, 4/29-5/5
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"7 pm ET: Jennifer Koh’s “Alone Together.” Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support to carry them through this challenging time, are donating newly composed works to the project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned. View via Instagram TV and Facebook Live. Subsequently available via YouTube. She will also share related content throughout the week, including composer insights, rehearsal footage, and musical scores posted on social media."

April 29, 2020 Classical Programming Streaming the Week Of May 4–10
By BWW News Desk
Broadway World
"Saturday, May 9 at 7:00 p.m. ET: Jennifer Koh's Alone Together series continues with Part VI
Every Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET, violinist Jennifer Koh premieres new micro-works for solo violin as part of her Alone Together series. Twenty-one composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support to carry them through this challenging time, are donating newly composed works to the project, while also each recommending a freelance composer to be formally commissioned. Learn more here.
The project is currently in its fifth week, and still to come is music by composers Kati Agócs, Marcos Balter, Rafiq Bhatia, Du Yun, Augusta Gross, Ted Hearne, Tania León, George Lewis, David Ludwig, Missy Mazzoli, Qasim Naqvi, and Andrew Norman, among others. May 9 program TBA.
WHERE TO WATCH: Jennifer Koh's Facebook and Instagram [...]"

April 27, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (April 20, 2020 – April 26, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
ALONE TOGETHER | JENNIFER KOH
"Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time. Saturday, May 2 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time."

April 27, 2020 Symphonies Silenced, Sonatas Streamed: The State of Classical Music During COVID-19
By Melissa Chan, LA Review of Books
ALONE TOGETHER | JENNIFER KOH
"...But in these times, classical musicians have turned to the technology as much as anyone else.
Cellist Johannes Moser not only performs on YouTube, but offers master classes, addressing questions amateurs message him. With the hashtag #KeepPlaying, musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) perform on social media — though always accompanied with the unsettling message that “our situation is critical. DONATE NOW to save the MCO.” Violinist Jennifer Koh has launched the online project Alone Together, in which she commissions violin solos and premieres them from her living room via Instagram. On Twitter, Yo-Yo Ma has appealed to musicians to post #SongsofComfort. And everywhere, music instructors for students of all ages have taken to providing virtual lessons. They have all adopted upbeat attitudes, but in the back of everyone’s minds is how sustainable all of this really is...."

April 20, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (April 20, 2020 – April 26, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
ALONE TOGETHER | JENNIFER KOH
"Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time. Saturday, April 25 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time."

April 15, 2020 Jennifer Koh's Ambitious Commissioning Project Bears Fruit
By Taylor Grant, Musical America
"In late March, acclaimed violinist Jennifer Koh inaugurated Alone Together, an online commissioning project. With support from Koh’s artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative, 21 composers, most of whom occupy salaried positions, will donate a new 30-second micro-work for solo violin. At the same time, they will recommend a freelance composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work for a commission fee of $500 (the standard commission rate is $1,000 per minute). [...]
The next scheduled performance, on April 18, features: Urman, by Adeliia Faizullina; There had been signs, surely, by Nina Young; Quiet City, by Inti Figgis-Vizueta; The River In My Mind, by Jen Shyu; Nocturno Lamarque, by Tomás Gueglio Saccone; and Springs Eternal, by Anthony Cheung. A complete list of the pairings of composers can be found here."

April 15, 2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams, 4/15-21
By Clive Paget, Musical America
"7 pm ET: Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together. Twenty-one composers, most of whom enjoy institutional support, have agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin, while also recommending a fellow freelance composer to write their own 30-second work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh premieres a selection via Instagram TV and Facebook Live. Each performance will be subsequently available via YouTube. She will also share related content throughout the week leading up to each performance, including composer insights, rehearsal footage, and musical scores posted on social media. Saturday's program: Adeliia Faizullina: Urman; Nina Young: There had been signs, surely; Inti Figgis-Vizueta: Quiet City; Jen Shyu: The River In My Mind; Tomás Gueglio Saccone: Nocturno Lamarque, Anthony Cheung: Springs Eternal."

April 13, 2020 Goings on About Town "Alone Together"
Steve Smith, The New Yorker
"The violinist Jennifer Koh has earned a sterling reputation for her commanding technique, but the ingenuity of her programming and commissioning initiatives also merits attention. Her live-stream series, “Alone Together,” reflects conditions born of the COVID-19 pandemic—specifically, forced isolation and economic hardship. Koh asked twenty-one prominent composers whose ties to universities or other institutions provide them with financial stability to donate a new thirty-second piece for solo violin. Each then named a freelance composer to receive a paid commission from Koh’s nonprofit, ARCO Collaborative. Koh presents the succinct works on her Instagram and Facebook pages on Saturday nights, and then archives the performances on her YouTube channel. The next program offers world premières by two highly visible creators, Jen Shyu and Nina C. Young, and by the colleagues they selected, inti figgis-vizueta and Adeliia Faizullina, respectively."

April 13, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (April 13, 2020 – April 19, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
ALONE TOGETHER | JENNIFER KOH
"Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time .
Saturday, April 18 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time."

April 10, 2020 Jennifer Koh commissions new works for ‘Alone Together’ project
The Strad
"Responding to the coronavirus lockdown, violinist Jennifer Koh is launching ‘Alone Together’, an online performance series of newly-composed music. Accordingly, she has asked 21 composers to donate a new work between 30 seconds and one minute long, as well as to nominate 21 freelance composers for new commissions funded by Arco, the artist-driven nonprofit collaborative Koh founded in 2014.
Starting Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern time (midnight, UK time), Koh, the 43-year-old violinist will perform a selection of these donated and commissioned works via Instagram TV (@jenniferkohmusic) and Facebook Live (facebook.com/jenniferkohviolin). From there, works will migrate to YouTube and be available on demand."

April 8, 2020 Can Classical Music’s Streaming Present Become Part of Its Future?
By David Patrick Stearns, WQXR
"Classical music activities are developing at such a speed that last week seems like last year. And the era of packed concert halls, not so long in the past, feels like history — as the online presence among artists and institutions enter a fascinating though haphazard “wild west” phase of activity...

...Longtime modern-music champion Jennifer Koh is having some 21 composers — including major names such as Andrew Norman and Missy Mazzoli (now Chicago Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence) — writing solo violin pieces as short as 30 seconds, many of them paid the going rate of $500. My first reaction to this “Alone Together” project was that fewer composers, longer pieces, and more money for each would be a more helpful model.

Not so, said Mazzoli in an email: “I think a $500 commission is a good amount of money at this time. I like that she [Jennifer] is commissioning lots of people …. To be clear, I am donating my commission fee so that a younger composer, Cassie Weiland, can be commissioned as well.” A selection of premieres will be played at 7 pm on Saturdays on Instagram and Facebook Live, with later availability on YouTube..."

April 7, 2020 Four premieres in ten minutes: Jennifer Koh launches “Alone Together” (Apr. 4)
By Jarrett Hoffman, Cleveland Classical
"...Streamed live over Facebook and Instagram, and still available on-demand through YouTube, this was the first concert of “Alone Together,” Koh’s new commissioning project and performance series in support of composers during the COVID-19 crisis. New concerts take place on Saturdays at 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

Each premiere will be a “micro-work” for solo violin. Half of the composers, most of whom have salaried positions or other forms of institutional support, have agreed to donate their work. Each of those artists is also recommending a freelance composer to write a short piece on paid commission from the ARCO Collaborative, a nonprofit founded and directed by Koh that advocates for inclusivity in classical music..."

April 6, 2020 This week: live streamed concerts (April 6, 2020 – April 12, 2020)
By Sam Reising, I Care If You Listen
ALONE TOGETHER | JENNIFER KOH
"Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together is an online commissioning project that brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them. Twenty-one composers have each agreed to donate a new, 30-second micro-work for solo violin while also recommending a fellow composer to write their own 30-second solo violin work on paid commission from the artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Koh will premiere a selection of these donated and commissioned works each Saturday at 7:00 p.m Eastern Time . Saturday, April 11 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time."

April 3, 2020 Jennifer Koh Launches "Alone Together"
By Anna Heflin, Classical Post
"...Classical Post reached out to three of the commissioned composers, inti figgis-vizueta, Cassie Wieland, and Darian Donovan Thomas for statements about participating in Alone Together. New York-based composer inti figgis-vizueta's music focuses on combinations of various notational schemata, disparate and overlaid sonic plans, and collaborative unlearning of dominant vernaculars. She shares, “Alone Together is an incredibly thoughtful outlet for creativity & collaboration in uncertain times. I’m delighted to pair music with Jen Shyu and work closely with Jennifer Koh in the development of this new piece & poem, quiet city.”..."

April 3, 2020 How one violinist is rebuilding her musical community — one minute at a time
By Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post
"...“I thought, I could spend this period of time being scared, curled up in a ball in the corner of the apartment,” she says. “Or I could spend this time only thinking about my own survival. Or I could spend this time and try to help as many people as I can.”
So Koh got to work on Alone Together, an online performance series for which she hyper-compressed her usual process of discovering composers by asking 21 of them with some level of financial security (be it from salary or grants) to donate a new work between 30 seconds and one minute long, as well as to nominate 21 freelance composers for new commissions funded by Arco..."

April 1, 2020 ‘Joy in the Grief’: Musicians Are Making Art in a Pandemic
The New York Times
"I feel I’ve gained wisdom from my parents about what it was like to be refugees. But I don’t have the wisdom for this. It feels like everything’s changed.

I came up with this project, “Alone Together.” A lot of composer colleagues have salaried positions. Others are freelance, and vulnerable. I started calling colleagues with positions and asking them for help with our community, asking them to recommend freelance composers to write solo violin pieces. I guaranteed the money personally: $500 per 30 seconds of music, a respectable rate.

I’m going to play the 16 pieces from my apartment, over Instagram, and I’m donating my time and work. All the money is going to these composers."

March 18, 2020 NPR
By Ari Shapiro & Connor Donevan
From Symphony Orchestras To Wedding Bands, Musicians Cope With The Coronavirus
"With a societal shift away from buying albums, touring has been one of the main ways for musicians to support themselves. But now, as the coronavirus precautions shut down public spaces, clubs and concert halls are empty, the tour buses are parked and artists are trying to figure out how they'll get by in an era of social distancing.

To try to get a sense of how artists are coping with the loss of their main source of revenue and what they can do to offset that loss, NPR's Ari Shapiro spoke to three musicians from three different genres about how their lives have changed over the past weeks: Jennifer Koh, a classical violinist who plays with symphony orchestras all over the world, joins us from New York; the rapper Rory Ferreira, who performs R.A.P. Ferreira, joins us from Nashville; and Molly Kirk Parlier, who performs with the Bluewater Kings Band, a group that plays weddings and corporate events, joins us in Charleston, Ill.

Listen to their conversation at the radio above, and read on for highlights of the interview."

March 10, 2020 What to do in Fort Worth in March — Your Performing Arts Must-List
By Courtney Dabney, Paper City Magazine
Cliburn Debut Concert
The annual Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition doesn’t take to the stage until May 24 to 30. It’s still a couple of months until contestants will tickle the ivories, but Cliburn is hosting a little appetizer this Saturday, March 14 along with The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The concert will feature violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist and composer Vijay Iyer.

Violinist Jennifer Koh was named 2016 Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year. She also won top prizes at the Tchaikovsky Competition and Concert Artist Guild Competition. Koh has premiered more than 70 works written especially for her.

Her partner for this special Cliburn debut is Grammy nominated, composer-pianist Vijay Iyer, whose 22 remarkably diverse recordings have earned him top-album accolades from the likes of The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Rolling Stone.

When: Saturday, March 14 from 2 pm to 4 pm
Where: The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

March 10, 2020 The Week in Reviews, Op. 312: Benjamin Beilman; Jennifer Koh; Joshua Bell
By Laurie Niles, violinist.com
"In an effort to promote the coverage of live violin performance, Violinist.com each week presents links to reviews of notable concerts and recitals around the world. Jennifer Koh performed Courtney Bryan’s "Syzygy" violin concerto with the Chicago Sinfonietta.

Chicago Tribune: "Koh played the piece with obvious authority, reveling in its openly expressed emotion and dispatching technically complex passagework with apparent ease. Quite a triumph for composer, soloist and the Sinfonietta.""

March 10, 2020 Chicago Sinfonietta review: Violinist Koh unveils a seductive new concerto
By Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
"...The work opened with Koh playing a simple line that soon blossomed into a rhapsodic solo. Here the music ascended to the violin’s highest register, producing otherworldly effects. Before long, the solo violin engaged in beguiling interplay with the orchestra’s winds in some of this movement’s most engaging passages. By this point, listeners realized they were in the hands of a skilled composer of considerable imagination. ...Koh played the piece with obvious authority, reveling in its openly expressed emotion and dispatching technically complex passagework with apparent ease. Quite a triumph for composer, soloist and the Sinfonietta..."

March 6, 2020 Hometown Violin Virtuosa to Guest Star
Kane County Chronicle
WHERE: Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College, 171 E.
Chicago Ave., Naperville
WHEN: 8 p.m. March 7
COST AND INFO: $10 to $62 if purchased in advance online; www.chicagosinfonietta.org

ABOUT: Famed violinist and Glen Ellyn native Jennifer Koh will join Chicago Sinfonietta's Women's History Month events. "Sight + Sound" is a sonic art exhibition that takes audiences through visual art by way of music. It is led by CS Music Director Mei-Ann Chen. Koh will play a world premiere commissioned work, "Syzygy," by Courtney Bryan, which celebrates female artists Frida Kahlo, Maya Lin and Alma Thomas.

March 5, 2020 Davóne Tines & Jennifer Koh to Team Up for ‘Everything that Rises Must Converge’
By David Salazar, Opera Wire
"The UCLA Center for the Art of Performance will feature violinist Jennifer Koh and bass-baritone Davóne Tines in “Everything That Rises Must Converge on April 17, 2020 at Royce Hall.
The showcase will bring together the two artists’ family histories through music and the voices of their ancestors via projection, lighting, and movement directed by James Darrah.
The program will combine African-American spirituals, Korean lullabies, and works written by such composers as Missy Mazzoli, Andrew Norman and Julia Wolfe. There will also be music by Beethoven, Holst, and Bach. Finally, the concert will culminate in a new duo by composer Du Yun.
Tines has appeared in the world premiere of “Only the Sound Remains” and has performed with such organizations as the Dutch National Opera, the Ojai Music Festival, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the San Francisco Opera, among others. He is a recipient of the 2018 Emerging Artists Award from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts."

March 4, 2020 Visualizing music
By Scott C. Morgan, Daily Herald
"Violinist Jennifer Koh joins with the Chicago Sinfonietta for "Sight + Sound: A Sonic Art Exhibition." The multimedia concerts feature Adam Schoenberg's "Finding Rothko," Courtney Bryan's world-premiere piece "Syzygy" and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" at two locations: first on Saturday at North Central College's Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville, then on Monday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. $10-$62. (312) 284-1554 or chicagosinfonietta.org. 8 p.m. Saturday, March 7, in Naperville; 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 9, in Chicago"

March 3, 2020 UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance Will Present EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE
By BWW News Desk
Broadway World
"UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) will present Jennifer Koh & Davóne Tines' Everything That Rises Must Converge on Friday, Apr 17, 2020 at 8 p.m. at Royce Hall. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and the Royce Hall box office.
Everything That Rises Must Converge weaves together Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines' family histories through music, their voices and their ancestor's voices-Gretrude Soonja Kim, Koh's grandmother and John Hilton Tines Senior, Tine's grandfather-projection design, movement, and lighting, all under the direction of co-creator James Darrah."

February 29, 2020 Chicago Sinfonietta presents Sight + Sound
By Natalia Dagenhart, Naperville Patch
"...Recognized for her dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance, American violinist Jennifer Koh is truly a unique musician as she has expanded the contemporary violin repertoire through a wide range of commissioned projects. Koh, a native Chicagoan, has premiered more than 70 works written especially for her. Syzygy, a three-movement work that is commissioned in collaboration with The New American Concerto, Arco Collaborative's multi-season commissioning project, became another gem in the brilliant palette of Koh's repertoire..."

February 26, 2020 Composer-Vocalist Lisa Bielawa Announces Residency at The Stone at The New School
Broadway World
"Composer, vocalist, and producer Lisa Bielawa will curate a residency at The Stone at The New School (a performance initiative founded by John Zorn) from Tuesday, March 10, 2020 through Saturday, March 14, 2020, with performances each night at 8:30pm.
[...]
Lisa Bielawa, a celebrated singer and long-time vocalist in the Philip Glass Ensemble, will sing in most of the concerts during this series. The performers include Gregory Purnhagen, voice, with Bielawa on March 10; violinist Jennifer Koh and Bielawa with pianist Molly Morkoski on March 1..."

February 26, 2020 Chicago Sinfonietta concert features Glen Ellyn-native violinist
By Kathy Cichon, Chicago Tribune/Naperville Sun
Often when the Chicago Sinfonietta programs a concert, it starts with a specific theme or concept, and then builds the setlist from there.
“In the case of this concert, it was the opportunity to work with Courtney Bryan on the development of her work called ‘Syzygy,’ as well as the amazing Jennifer Koh that actually kind of created the centerpiece for this concert, then we built everything else around it,” said Chief Executive Officer Jim Hirsch....

March 2020 Premiere of the Month | Courtney Bryan Syzygy
The Strad
Celestial beings
Three artists' views of a dazzling planetary event

February 12, 2020 NJSO 2020-21 season: Beethoven, Sorey, multi-composer horn concerto, “Gershwin and the Sounds of America”
The Hub Newsletter
"The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s 2020-21 opening program will recreate the December 8, 1813 concert that featured the world premieres of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Wellington’s Victory, paired with the commissioned world premiere of Tyshawn Sorey’s violin concerto featuring Jennifer Koh as soloist, led by Music Director Xian Zhang."

January 29, 2020 Carnegie Hall Announces 2020-2021 Season
carnegiehall.org
"Violinist Jennifer Koh’s ongoing exploration of “The New American Concerto” provides the impetus for works by Christopher Cerrone and Lisa Bielawa. Koh’s initiative encourages composers to engage with the issues of the day and respond to them with a violin concerto. Cerrone’s “Breaks and Breaks” features intense dialogues between solo violin and orchestra as they comment on current affairs. Bielawa’s work meditates on the word sanctuary and its significance in the American consciousness. It’s also a deeply personal work with moving quotations of Chopin and Bach—music where Bielawa finds her own sanctuary."

January 22, 2020 Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque have been great for each other
By Georgia Rowe, East Bay Times
"Here are more shows Bay Area classical music fans should know about
Violins take center stage this week, as top artists from around the world arrive in the Bay Area to play a variety of classical works. Here are six events that music lovers really shouldn’t miss.
[...]
Koh plus two: Powerhouse violinist Jennifer Koh teams up with pianist Vijay Iyer and percussionist Tyshawn Sorey in a trio concert highlighting contemporary music. Presented by SF Performances, they’ll play new compositions by Iyer and Sorey; works by Bach, Andrew Norman and Missy Mazzoli complete the lineup. Details: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; $45-$60; 415-392-2545; www.sfperformances.org."

January 15, 2020 Orlando Philharmonic gets informal with new “Resonate” event
The Hub Newsletter
"For a new event called ‘Resonate,’ the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra is going casual,” writes Matthew J. Palm in Sunday’s (1/12) Orlando Sentinel (FL). “ ‘Resonate,’ which takes place Jan. 15 at the Plaza Live … features ‘Sanctuary,’ a [world premiere] for violin and orchestra by Lisa Bielawa [with violinist] Jennifer Koh…. The evening is actually divided into two separately ticketed concerts. The first, at 7 p.m. in the Plaza’s bigger theater, features ‘Sanctuary’ and Mozart’s Symphony No. 36. Then follows an hourlong cocktail hour, with opportunities to talk about the music with friends, new acquaintances or composer Bielawa, [Music Director Eric] Jacobsen and the musicians…. Afterward, a special 9 p.m. performance in the Plaza Live’s smaller hall will take place for fewer than 200 music lovers who will be seated around the stage. Jacobsen will trade his conductor’s baton for his cello. Philharmonic principal clarinetist Nikolay Blagov will solo on Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major. And more of Bielawa’s original works will be heard. ‘It’s all a nice way to invite people in,’ Jacobsen says…. ‘And it’s fun.’ … The orchestra [will] move its main concerts to Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts this fall."

January 2, 2020 NPR Music Playlists
By Tom Huizenga, NPR Classical
Missy Mazzoli's "A Thousand Tongues" from Jennifer Koh's Limitless has been added to the NPR Classical Playlist. It's #96 in NPR's Spotify playlist, which is updated on Thursdays.

Updated Jan. 2, 2020: "In late and overlooked," is how to describe this week's additions to the NPR Classical Playlist. These tracks, released last month from pianists, singers and fiddlers, were overshadowed by the holiday hullabaloo.

December 5, 2019 Best classical albums of 2019: World premieres, historic revivals and enticingly eclectic music
By Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
"Jennifer Koh: "Limitless" (Cedille Records). In a bold and stylistically diverse recording, violinist Koh plays a series of duos with the composers of eight works included on this two-CD set. Where else is one likely to encounter music of contemporary composer-pianist Missy Mazzoli, soprano Lisa Bielawa and MacArthur Fellows Vijay Iyer (piano) and Tyshawn Sorey (glockenspiel) in a single project? The sounds are every bit as eclectic as one might expect, a testament to Koh's adventurousness and the creativity of all involved."
 
 

December 12, 2019 The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2019
By Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times
"This list of our critics’ favorite albums of the year, each represented by a single track, is a lot like the classical music scene: It might seem at first to be dominated by standards — alphabetical order, alas — but quickly reveals rarer treasures, from overlooked centuries-old works to fresh experiments. Enjoy."
[...]
Du Yun: ‘Give Me Back My Fingerprints’
“Limitless”; Jennifer Koh, violin (Cedille)
Part of Ms. Koh’s double-disc project of collaborations with composers who also perform alongside her, this piece rises from quietly uneasy to rabid and raw, then back again. Violin lines emerge, as if from far away, to mingle with Ms. Du’s earthy, murmuring, sometimes choking voice.

October 17, 2019 6 Classical Music Concerts to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend
By David Allen, The New York Times
"VIJAY IYER at Miller Theater (Oct. 24, 8 p.m.). Miller continues to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its composer portraits with this look at an artist who sits easily at the intersection of jazz and classical, as a composer, pianist and more. Prime of place is “Trouble,” a piece that is part of the enterprising violinist Jennifer Koh’s New American Concerto commissioning project, but there are also performances of “Crisis Modes,” “The Law of Returns” and “Song for Flint,” in its world premiere. Iyer and Koh are joined by the Knights.
212-854-7799, millertheatre.com"

October 18, 2019 NYC-Arts Top Five Picks: October 18 – 24
NYC ARTS
"Violinist Jennifer Koh commissioned and premiered Vijay Iyer’s concerto “Trouble” in 2017. As part of “Composer Portraits: Vijay Iyer,” Koh will bring the work to the New York audience for the first time. She will be performing it with The Knights, under the baton of Eric Jacobsen. “Trouble” was the inaugural work in Ms. Koh’s multi-season commissioning project “The New American Concerto,” which asks composers of diverse backgrounds to rethink the form of the violin concerto for the 21st century and use it to engage with socio-cultural issues facing Americans today. In the case of Mr. Iyer’s concerto, these issues are discrimination and the immigrant experience."

February 6, 2019 Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner invite Aspen across ‘Bridge to Beethoven’
Andrew Travers, Aspen Times
"The violinist Jennifer Koh and the pianist Shai Wosner are moderating a conversation across the centuries between Beethoven and today's composers.... "It's fascinating to come to an understanding of how these composers hear other composers and other works," Koh said of the yearslong collaborative process... New music may struggle to fill concert halls as readily as Beethoven still does nearly 200 years after his death. But Koh and Wosner believe that contemporary composers can find audiences if the work is excellent and is placed in the right context. Wosner noted that placing new music alongside Beethoven can open people's minds to it, paraphrasing the pianist and author Charles Rosen saying "music is only difficult if you are listening for something that is not there."

February 5, 2019 Classical Music Concerts Part 2: Orchestras Primed for Adventure
Nelson Brill, Boston Concert Reviews
"Koh possesses this special quality in her playing of capturing both muscular power and expressive force with the ability to also communicate a beautiful litheness and tenderness at the music flows...Trouble ended on an optimistic push of life forces and unity...All the struggles, victories and defeats of a people seemed wrapped up in this bracing piece of music, with Koh and the BMOP confidently at its helm."

January 18, 2019 Violinist Jennifer Koh, Live from NYC, and Coming to Baltimore
Tom Hall & Rob Sivak, WYPR
Acclaimed classical violinist Jennifer Koh joins us live from the studios of NPR in New York City.

Not only is she a virtuoso player, she is one of the great champions of contemporary composers, having commissioned more than 70 works from a brilliant and diverse group of composers from all over the world. Ms. Koh will be playing a concert on Sunday, January 27 at 5:30pm at Baltimore's Hebrew Congregation, performing a program of Beethoven Sonatas and a modern piece by Vijay Iyer, with her frequent concert partner, pianist Shai Wosner, as part of the Shriver Hall Concert Series.

We're delighted to welcome Jennifer Koh to Midday, today. She talks about her art and her upcoming concert, and performs two short solo pieces: “Kinski Paganini,” by Missy Mazzoli, and the Sarabande from the Violin Partita in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The show's closing music is from the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata for Violin and Piano No 1. in D Minor, Op. 12, performed by Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner at the Aspen Music Festival and School, in July 2015.

January 8, 2019 Wednesday at the Amsterdam: Liquid Music: Jennifer Koh: “Limitless” with Tyshawn Sorey and Vijay Iyer.
Pamela Espeland, Minnesota Post
"Searching for a pithy phrase to describe this event, we keep returning to “a gathering of Olympians.” This is a serious threesome and one that won’t often pass our way. Violinist Koh is a prodigy and virtuoso violinist who’s at home in classical repertory and contemporary music. Percussionist/composer Sorey and pianist/composer Iyer are both MacArthur fellows whose vast sonic territories include jazz. Along with “Limitless,” commissioned by Koh and first performed at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, we’ll hear improvisations and explorations using Iyer’s “The Diamond” and Sorey’s “In Memoriam: Muhal Richard Abrams.” 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($30/25; free for children 6-17 and students)."

January 6, 2019 The week's best concerts: Jan. 7-10
Rick Mason, City Pages
"Wednesday 1.9 Jennifer Koh, Tshawn Sorey, Vijay Iyer @ Amsterdam This summit of cutting edge virtuoso musicians under the auspices of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music series brings together classical violinist Jennifer Koh, percussionist/trombonist Tyshawn Sorey and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer. All three blur lines among genres while pursuing fiercely singular, ingenious visions. Primary focus will be on Koh’s recently commissioned Limitless. Sorey’s In Memoriam Muhal Richard Abrams and Iyer’s The Diamond will subsequently inspire exploration of the overall theme: the relationship between composition and improvisation/composer and musician. 7:30 p.m. $25—$30. 6 6th St. W., St. Paul. "

January 3, 2019 First Impression: A New Thing on New Music
John Scherch, WBJC
"SHRIVER HALL BALTIMORE PREMIERES You may also recall hearing about the Shriver Hall Concert Series on our air; on January 27th at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner present the Baltimore premiere of Vijay Iyer’s Bridgetower Fantasy, paired with works of Beethoven including his Kreutzer sonata, originally dedicated to and premiered by George Bridgetower, a famous 18th-century Afro-European violinist, with the composer at the piano (the rededication to Kreutzer followed an argument over what Beethoven construed as Bridgetower’s insult of a female acquaintance)."

December 10, 2018 Inclusion, Collaboration, Evolution: Vanessa Rose Interviews Jennifer Koh
By Vanessa Rose, The SPCO's Liquid Music
VR: What I appreciate about your advocacy for new music and composers is that you do not see it as an either/or choice with traditional, revered classical works, but rather embracing the and as well as the vibrancy and relevancy it brings to our current repertoire. Your projects include pairing all ten of Beethoven’s violin sonatas with new works and inviting composers to reimagine the violin concerto. How do you approach this expansion of your repertoire and selecting the composers you work with?

JK: I’ve always seen contemporary music as a thread to the past. My experience with performing new music is that often audiences who have not experienced classical music can relate to contemporary music, which engages with contemporary sounds and creates a pathway to experiencing older music.

May 8, 2018 New-Music Premieres in Detroit
By David Mermelstein, The Wall Street Journal
"The piece, whose varied imagery was also influenced by several non-Kunitz texts, was written for the Chicago-born violinist Jennifer Koh, a musician of immaculate control, keen intelligence and a slightly cool demeanor, for whom the composer had previously written a short solo work. The combination of score and soloist could hardly have been better matched."

May 8, 2018 5 Questions to Jennifer Koh (violinist)
By Don Clark, I Care If You Listen
"The New American Concerto project is about creating a collection of new concerti for violin that would both engage the traditional form of violin concerti and also challenge that form. I wanted to create a commissioning initiative that would reflect the country that I live in, and the individual and collective experiences of both composers and myself."

March 14, 2018 Listen In on a Violinist’s Rehearsal Room
Hear the virtuoso Jennifer Koh work with three composers on new collaborations.
By Joshua Barone, The New York Times
"That was good," the violinist Jennifer Koh told the soprano and composer Lisa Bielawa during a recent rehearsal. But then she pointed to a spot on her sheet music and said, “I do think we should take more time here.” They were at Ms. Koh’s apartment in Upper Manhattan, practicing Ms. Bielawa’s “Sanctuary Songs,” which the two will perform together at National Sawdust this month as part of “Limitless,” Ms. Koh’s latest project to commission new music from a diverse slate of composers — who, in a new twist, will be onstage playing with her."

March 9, 2018 SF Chronicle critics’ picks: What to do the week of March 11
By Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
"Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner: The innovative violin-and-piano duo returns to the Bay Area with the third installment of their “Bridge to Beethoven” commissioning project, featuring music by Beethoven and Andrew Norman. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 17. Weill Concert Hall, Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park"

March 9, 2018 NYC Arts Top Five Picks: Violinist Jennifer Koh Presents “Limitless” Recital Series, National Sawdust, Brooklyn
NYC Arts
"As one of National Sawdust’s ten curators for the 2017-18 season, violinist Jennifer Koh presents Limitless, a two-night recital series that celebrates the collaborative relationship between composer and performer through duo performances. This spirit of collaboration contrasts with the conventional notion today that composition and performance are discrete and detached parts of the musical process, while also re-connecting with an older, pre-modern tradition of composers as performers. Ms. Koh has appeared with orchestras worldwide, including ..."

March/April 2018 March/April 2018 issue of American Record Guide of the Bridge to Beethoven performance in Rochester, NY.
By Gil French, American Record Guide
"Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner"

March 8, 2018 Jennifer Koh: Pushing Past Limits for Art and Community
By Steve Smith, National Sawdust Log
"NATIONAL SAWDUST LOG: Why don’t we just dive right at the deep end, and talk about where the concept for “Limitless” came from?
JENNIFER KOH: We’ve lived in the world that we seem to live in right now for the last couple years… I mean, I feel like it’s been something that’s always been on my mind, since I am female and I am a minority. And I feel that there needs to be more equality in programming."

February 1, 2018 Jennifer Koh's Shared Madness
By Kyle MacMillan, Classical Voice America
"Reflecting a breathtaking level of technique, Koh hardly broke a sweat during her 90-minute matinee, handling everything these composers threw at her with seeming ease. And to her credit, she went beyond the fireworks and brought a sense of genuine depth and expressiveness to these works."

January 29, 2018 Review: Glen Ellyn's Jennifer Koh premieres modern takes on Paganini
By John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
"I caught the first program and came away admiring the formidable technical prowess, probing musicality and dedication Koh brought to this unusual undertaking more than some of the pieces themselves."

January 16, 2018 Renowned Violinist To Explore Bach During Princeton Event
By Anthony Bellano, Lawrenceville Patch
"Violinist Jennifer Koh, a renowned champion of contemporary music, will explore J.S. Bach's famous "Chaconne" from the Violin Partita No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004 through the lens of new music inspired by the work in an evening titled "Bach and Beyond." It will be part of Princeton University Concerts's PUC125: Performances Up Close series, and takes place on Thursday, Feb. 8."

January 15, 2018 Beethoven brought to fresh light by Koh, Wosner at Union
New introduction and interludes cleverly frame three Opus 30 sonatas
By Joseph Dalton, Times Union
"Putting aside the contemporary for a moment, the afternoon showcased early Beethoven, much of it on the scale and style of Mozart. Koh and Wosner performed beautifully together, offering a lean sound that was often consoling and always lovely."

Vijay Iyer “Trouble”: An Observation by Claire Solomon
In his introduction to the work, Iyer writes: "Good trouble," "necessary trouble" — these are favorite phrases of U.S. Representative John Lewis, referring to the strategies and tactics of the Civil Rights movement and the ongoing struggles for equality and justice in the last six decades.

July 15, 2017 Stylistic Tangling At Tanglewood In Concerto Premiere
By Keith Powers, Classical Voice America
"The dynamic Koh owned the difficult score, shifting from one extended technique to the next and filling the spaces with furious bowings, including double-stops that created exotic overtones. Then a cadenza — it is doubtful Iyer called it that, but it was a solo excursion that preceded the coda — brought scales that demanded increasing tempo and volume, growing into a multi-voiced, Bach-like complexity. A tense and loud cadence stuck a pause right at the climax. Koh inserted a gentle phrase, and then it was done."

July 14, 2017 Time in and out of joint at Ozawa Hall
By Andrew L. Pincus, The Berkshire Eagle
"Yet to come in the program were a jump forward to a brand-new violin concerto and a lurch backward to a Mozart symphony. The last two items would have been conventional enough were it not for the passion — the compassion — behind the fresh sounds of Vijay Iyer's violin concerto, "Trouble," with Jennifer Koh as soloist...The six short movements range from striking harmonies and strange rattles to angry cries and soaring lyricism, with an extended cadenza of heightened emotion. But at the heart is a moving third-movement threnody for a Chinese-American man killed by thugs near Detroit. Koh was a powerful advocate for music that affirms continuing human values in a time of danger to those values."

July 13, 2017 At Tanglewood, a concerto for our times
By Andrew L. Pincus, The Berkshire Eagle
"Trouble" is part of a "Mixtape" project in which Koh, now 40, commissions works to explore the form of the violin concerto and how it can interact with culture and current events. But, she said, the Iyer work is an artistic rather than political statement despite the political implications. And though she regularly performs the standard repertoire as well as new works, she says she doesn't draw hard and fast distinctions between high and low culture, classical and popular.

July 5, 2017 Vijay Iyer: Taking Stock of the Ojai Festival Experience
By Steve Smith, The Log Journal
The festival commenced on Thursday, June 8, with a concert featuring two Iyer concertos performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, conducted by Steven Schick — Emergence, involving Iyer’s trio with bassist Stephan Crump and percussionist Tyshawn Sorey, and Trouble, a world premiere featuring violinist Jennifer Koh..."And then to have Jenny there instead, playing a solo concert, was incredible. That was one of my favorite moments in the festival. She set the bar so high with that set; it was like, oh, this is what we all could be aspiring to. Not that there wasn’t other kinds of excellence at hand, but she’s one of the greats."

June 16, 2017 At Classical-Leaning Ojai Fest, Iyer Builds Bridges to Jazz
By Josef Woodard, DownBeat
"Over the weekend, we heard Iyer in multiple settings. He showed his ever-deepening attributes as a composer, most notably in the impressive world premiere of his engaging Violin Concerto, “Trouble,” for style-flexible virtuoso Jennifer Koh (whose late-night solo concert “Bach And Beyond,” melding Bach, Berio and others, was a bold highlight of the weekend)."

June 14, 2017 Community and Empathy at the 2017 Ojai Music Festival
By Alexander K. Rothe, Second Inversion
"A highlight of the festival’s first evening was the spectacular world premiere of Iyer’s violin concerto for Jennifer Koh. Koh, who was interviewed later during the festival, is a warm, intelligent person, and this was reflected in her performance of Iyer’s violin concerto. The concerto—a genre that traditionally involves a hierarchical relationship between the hero-soloist and the orchestra—was instead reconceived here as a dialogue between equals. The soloist was depicted as a vulnerable figure responding to the musical material of the orchestra. For example, at one point during the concerto, the violinist sustains a single pitch while the orchestra plays the melody. When Koh performed this section, she drew her bow close to the bridge, resulting in a brittle, fragile sound—like a voice on the verge of breaking."

June 9, 2017 Review Ojai Music Festival opens with triumphant debuts — and a big scare
By George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Thursday night’s concert featured the world premiere of “Trouble,” Iyer’s audacious violin concerto. A thrilling showcase for Jennifer Koh, who has performed other pieces by Iyer in the past, “Trouble” takes its title from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. ... In Koh, who combines dazzling virtuosity and deep emotional conviction, [Iyer] had an exceptional solo voice. ... With further exposure, “Trouble” has the potential to become a showcase for violinists who share Koh’s ability, stamina and appetite for aural adventure."

June 9, 2017 Review: Vijay Iyer jazzes up the Ojai Music Festival
By Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
"The evening began with the American premiere of “Emergence,” in which Iyer’s jazz trio interacts with a chamber ensemble. The world premiere of what you might say is Iyer’s classical violin concerto, “Trouble,” with Jennifer Koh as the dazzling soloist, followed. After intermission, Iyer joined the great West Coast trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith for an intimate, meditative set of very personal, very jazz duos."

June 6, 2017 Violinist Jennifer Koh's Shared Madness Web Series Launches
Broadway World
"Today, WQXR's Q2 Music premieres violinist Jennifer Koh's new online series, in which she converses with a diverse range of 30 dynamic, leading composers who contributed music to her Shared Madness project."

Shared Madness Web Series with Jennifer Koh June 5: LA Opera's Matthew Aucoin
June 6: The National's Bryce Dessner
June 7: Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Samuel Carl Adams
June 8: Talea Ensemble's Anthony Cheung
June 9: 'Breaking the Waves' Composer Missy Mazzoli
June 12: Modern-Day Troubadour Gabriel Kahane
June 13: Multimedia Composer Zosha Di Castri
June 14: Composer-Pianist Timo Andres
June 15: Boston Symphony Orchestra's Eric Nathan
June 16: American Composers Orchestra's Derek Bermel
June 19: Invisible Cities' Christopher Cerrone
June 20: Orchestral Specialist Sean Shepherd
June 21: Composer-Vocalist Lisa Bielawa
June 22: Composer and Former MATA Director James Matheson
June 23: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer John Harbison
June 26: wild Up's Christopher Rountree
June 27: IRCAM Innovator Jean-Baptiste Barrière
June 28: Chicago's Augusta Read Thomas
June 29: Unsilent Night's Phil Kline
June 30: Ojai Music Festival Director Vijay Iyer
July 3: Curtis Institute's David Ludwig
July 4: Sante Fe Composer Marc Neikrug
July 5: Transatlantic Composer David Bruce
July 6: Finnish Icon Kaija Saariaho
July 7: Bedroom Community's Daníel Bjarnason
July 10: Grawemeyer Award Winner Andrew Norman
July 11: Composer & Sound Designer Mark Grey
July 12: Bang on a Can's Michael Gordon
July 13: MacArthur Fellow Julia Wolfe
July 14: Pulitzer Prize Winner David Lang
Learn more about Jennifer Koh's "Shared Madness"

May 26, 2017 Summer arts preview: Top 10 classical music picks
By Beth Wood, The San Diego Union-Tribune
"For lovers of piano-violin compositions, the performance of Beethoven’s sonatas should be heavenly....8 p.m. Aug. 15, Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas I, featuring Cho-Liang Lin and Jon Kimura Parker. 8 p.m. Aug. 16, Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas II, featuring Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner."

February 5, 2017 Bridge to Beethoven I - Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
BBC Music Magazine, March 2017 Issue
Jennifer Koh March 21 concert with Shai Wosner is listed in the March issue of BBC Music Magazine as a top live event of the month.

February 5, 2017 Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner shine in Valley Classical Concert (review)
By Clifton Noble Jr., MassLive
"Koh's "Bridge to Beethoven" project, pairing Beethoven's ten sonatas with works by contemporary composers, (Jorg Widmann, Andrew Norman, and Anthony Cheung join Vijay Iyer in this endeavor) is a superb idea, and deserves a lot of credit. It may succeed in enlarging the repertoire for the violin, or it may simply highlight Beethoven's enduring genius, but it ultimately draws deserved attention to art music."

November 22, 2016 Jennifer Koh will open the 2017 Ojai Music Festival
playing the world premiere of Vijay Iyer’s violin concerto with ICE on June 8
Ventura County Star
Diversity highlights 2017 Ojai Music Festival lineup
"Highlights include several works by Music Director Vijay Iyer, including the world premiere of his "Violin Concerto," written for and performed by Koh..."

November 17, 2016 Jennifer Koh will open the 2017 Ojai Music Festival
playing the world premiere of Vijay Iyer’s violin concerto with ICE on June 8.
By Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
"Violinist Jennifer Koh (who, it was announced Thursday, will premiere a concerto by Iyer at the Ojai Music Festival in June) did something similar recently with her Bach Project."

October 15, 2016 The Memorable Duo
By Roman Markowicz, Concerto Net
"Shai Wosner and Jennifer Koh have been performing together for over a decade. They last appeared in New York City during the 2015-16 season, when they offered a four-concert project “Bridge to Beethoven”, in which all of the Sonatas for Piano and Violin were presented in the context of contemporary work especially commissioned for that occasion..."

July 29, 2016 Building bridges: Violinist Jennifer Koh
By James M. Keller, Santa Fe New Mexican
"Two words kept coming up during a recent phone conversation with the violinist Jennifer Koh: “bridge” and “community.” That inclusive phrasing was surprising since the topic was the pair of recitals she performs at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival on Friday, July 29, and Saturday, July 30, both of which are solitary affairs, made up entirely of works for unaccompanied violin."

June 6, 2016 Jennifer Koh Eloquently Tames 32 Musical Beasts
By Daniel Stephen Johnson, Musical America
"One of the New York Philharmonic Biennial's most alluring facets, as the event heads into its second summer, has been the presentation of satellite concerts curated by well-chosen new-music proponents and presenters at venues around the city. This has the effect of shining the orchestra's high-profile spotlight on a genre that doesn't often get one. Among the beneficiaries was a program entitled Shared Madness, in which Jennifer Koh unveiled a series of 32 new miniatures for unaccompanied violin over two consecutive Tuesdays at National Sawdust in Williamsburg."

June 1, 2016 Review: Jennifer Koh Asks 32 Musicians to Respond to Paganini
By Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times
"...given the opportunity to channel their inner virtuoso, many composers seemed to say, rather, 'I don't play that way'"

May 24 and 31, 2016 at 7 PM EDT Shared Madness Live Stream
For those of you unable to attend Jennifer's two concerts at the National Sawdust tomorrow (5/24) and next Tuesday (5/31) featuring arco collaborative's Shared Madness project, there is an alternative way to join in the adventure. WQXR's Q2 Music will stream both recitals live via the Interrnet.
Click here for the May 24 stream, and here for the May 31 stream.

May 24, 2016 At New York Phil Biennial, a Thoroughly Modern Mix
The blitz of modern and contemporary music is also a swan song for director Alan Gilbert
Jennifer Smith, The Wall Street Journal
"As a musician, it's strange to me to only want to hear something that is written 100 years ago," said Ms. Koh... "Do I love Shakespeare? Yes, but I also want to see contemporary plays and read new fiction."

May 15, 2016 See Jack Quartet and Jennifer Koh
Justin Davidson, New York Magazine
At the New York Phil Biennial.
92nd St. Y, May 23 (Jack); National Sawdust, May 24 and 31 (Koh).
"Two years ago, the New York Philharmonic inaugurated its citywide new-music biennial, now in its second edition. The versatile Jack Quartet kicks things off, performing music by composers you almost certainly haven't formed an opinion about yet. Later in the week, there's superstar violinist Jennifer Koh. She spends a lot of time performing big concertos with big orchestras, but she's also a master of the brilliant miniature, and for the biennial, she collected more than 30 new brief pieces for solo violin by the likes of Julia Wolfe, Missy Mazzoli, and Timo Andres. The recital should feel like listening to a chain of tiny diamonds."

March 28, 2016 Review: Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner play in the transforming spirit of Beethoven
Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
"Koh... maintained an exceptional even keel, her tone pure, not muddied by excessive vibrato. She phrased with elegance. Wosner proved an equally understated and elegant partner. Slow movements were exquisite."

March 22, 2016 Review: Anthony Cheung’s ‘Elective Memory,’ a Response to Beethoven
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
"Ms. Koh and Mr. Wosner played the piece beautifully, though it might have been more helpful to hear it after the sonata that inspired it, which was given an eloquent performance here. The scintillating account of the feisty Beethoven sonata that opened the program was also especially enjoyable."

February 14, 2016 Laguna Beach Music Festival peaks with Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner
Orange County Register
"Violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner were the co-artistic directors. Both have made contemporary music an integral part of their careers, and together they have been working on a Bridge to Beethoven project (Sunday’s concert was to feature its latest product), which pairs newly commissioned works with the Beethoven violin sonatas. Making connections is important to these musicians."

January 28, 2016 Jennifer Koh Talks ‘Bridge to Beethoven’ Inspiration?
Shane Jordan, Classicallite.com
"I wanted to create a project that explores diversity in a compelling way, where people can engage with different cultural voices in a musical conversation."

November 17, 2015 Violinist Jennifer Koh engages Beethoven via modern music
David Weininger, Boston Globe
"The fruit of that inquiry is “Bridge to Beethoven,” a series of concerts mixing Beethoven’s violin sonatas with newly commissioned works by composers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds."

November 16, 2015 ‘Bridge to Beethoven’ Review: Where Old Meets New
Barbara Jepson, The Wall Street Journal
"Like the “Kreutzer,” Mr. Iyer’s piece begins slowly, then increases in tempo. About 17 minutes long in this performance, it opens with Mr. Wosner producing thumps with the piano’s sustaining pedal and other percussive effects while Ms. Koh plays wispy harmonics in the violin stratosphere. Written in a loosely atonal idiom, “Fantasy” veers from sparse repeated tones and lyric shards to propulsive rhythms. After a middle section that gives the performers some improvisational freedom, the engaging finale builds fitfully to a manic, whirling-dervish ending, matching the intensity, if not the inspiration, of the “Kreutzer” Sonata’s weighty first movement. Ms. Koh’s command of the various bowing techniques required was breathtaking."

November 5, 2015 Koh and Wosner Unveil a Beethoven Journey, San Francisco Chronicle
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
"Musical works never exist in a historical vacuum — they interact closely with everything that’s come before and after — but performing artists don’t always draw the connections carefully enough. Among those who do are the violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner, whose promising new commissioning project, Bridge to Beethoven, had its first local airing on Wednesday night, in an inspired Herbst Theatre recital presented by San Francisco Performances."

November 5, 2015 Review: Koh, Wosner build a 'Bridge to Beethoven' at the Herbst in San Francisco
Georgia Rowe, San Jose Mercury News
"Koh, who made her San Francisco Performances debut in 2003, is simply remarkable--an artist who combines a questing spirit with tonal refinement and a kind of fearless virtuosity. Anyone who witnessed her extended violin solo in Philip Glass' 'Einstein on the Beach' at Cal Performances a few years back can attest to her brilliance. Yet Wosner, making his first San Francisco Performances appearance on this program, was every bit her match. Together, these two musicians traversed the evening's works with superb style and insight."

November 3, 2015 Jennifer Koh on Building a 'Bridge to Beethoven'
Lou Fancher, San Francisco Classical Voice
A preview article and interview with Jenny on Bridge to Beethoven
"So it’s bound to be a distinct pleasure to launch into what will ultimately be four performances spanning San Francisco Performances’ 2015-16 season. The performances, a four-part project titled “Bridge to Beethoven,” pair Beethoven’s 10 sonatas for violin and piano with new works from four contemporary composers. Koh will be joined by longtime collaborator, pianist Shai Wosner."

October 29, 2015 Review: For Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer,’ a Chance to Compare and Contrast
Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times
"The Y program was the first in Ms. Koh and Mr. Wosner’s Bridge to Beethoven series, pairing new works with the 10 Beethoven violin sonatas. Monday also brought the gentle Sonata No. 1 in D and Vijay Iyer’s “Bridgetower Fantasy,” a reference to George Bridgetower, the charismatic violinist for whom Beethoven wrote the “Kreutzer.”"

October 5, 2015 Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Innovative Projects Connect Masterworks of the Past with the Present
Jeff Kaliss, Strings Magazine
"“Bridge to Beethoven” is one of the latest of Koh’s high-energy endeavors, in which she shares questions and answers with her colleagues and growing fan base. For the Beethoven project, she recruited a “plethora of diverse voices,” including Chinese-American composer Anthony Cheung, Indian-American Vijay Iyer, and Jörg Widmann, a German composer whose commissioned Sommersonate has been paired in performance with Beethoven’s “Spring” sonata."

July 20, 2015 Violinist Jennifer Koh & Pianist Shai Wosner Collaborate on 'Bridge to Beethoven'
BroadwayWorld.com
"Violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner have come together to combine their personal and musical experiences in a collaborative project titled Bridge to Beethoven that explores the impact and significance Beethoven has had on a culturally diverse group of composers and musicians. The recital series pairs Beethoven's Complete Violin Sonatas with works by composers of different ethnic lineage in four distinct programs featuring three works commissioned for the series by Vijay Iyer, Andrew Norman, and Anthony Cheung which serve as companion pieces to select sonatas, and Jörg Widmann's Sommersonate."

April 28, 2015 Jennifer Koh and Pianist Shai Wosner at Hahn Hall
Joseph Miller, The Independent
"the collaboration was nothing short of brilliant"

June 2014 Jennifer Koh, The Art of Collaboration and Creativity
Strings Magazine
"Violinist Jennifer Koh is all about the now — not only full immersion in the performance at hand but a career that has employed a number of today’s prominent composers. Besides her gifts as a dazzling violinist and convincing interpreter of the canon, Koh is a meticulous programmer who devises multiyear projects, honoring great composition cycles by cementing them with new works spawned by the originals."