Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. A forward-thinking artist, she is dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire, while promoting equity and inclusivity in classical music. She has expanded the contemporary violin repertoire through a wide range of commissioning projects, and has premiered more than 100 works written especially for her. Her quest for the new and unusual, sense of endless curiosity, and ability to lead and inspire a host of multidisciplinary collaborators, truly set her apart.
Ms. Koh’s critically acclaimed series include Alone Together, an online commissioning project and performance series in support of composers during the coronavirus crisis (released on recording in August 2021); The New American Concerto, which invites a diverse collective of composers to examine sociocultural topics relevant to American life today through the form of the violin concerto; Limitless, which explores the relationship between composer and performer through duo works played by Ms. Koh and the composers themselves; Bach and Beyond, which traces the history of the solo violin repertoire from J. S. Bach’s sonatas and partitas to pieces by 20th- and 21st-century composers; and Shared Madness, comprising short solo works that explore virtuosity in the 21st century, commissioned from more than 30 composers.
Ms. Koh performs a broad range of concertos that reflects the breadth of her musical interests from traditional to contemporary. Highlights of her orchestral appearances have included performances with the Los Angeles and New York philharmonics; the Cleveland, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Philharmonia (London) orchestras; the Atlanta, Baltimore, BBC, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, Montreal, National, New Jersey, NHK (Tokyo), Pittsburgh, RAI National (Torino), and Singapore symphony orchestras; Houston, St. Louis, Seattle, Nashville, and New World symphonies; and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, among others.
Ms. Koh has been honored as “A Force of Nature” by the American Composers Orchestra and Musical America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year. She has won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Concert Artists Guild Competition, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has a bachelor’s in English literature from Oberlin College and studied at the Curtis Institute, where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir. Ms. Koh is an active lecturer, teacher, and recording artist for Cedille Records. She is also artistic director of arco collaborative, an artist-driven nonprofit that fosters a better understanding of our world through a musical dialogue inspired by ideas and the communities around us.