Jennifer Koh
violin

Jennifer Koh is a risk-taking, high-octane player of the kind who grabs the listener by the ears and refuses to let go. Unlike so many players of this temperament however, she supports her mesmerizing flights of fancy with a beguilingly silvery tone, fabulous technique and dead center intonation. — The Strad

Violinist Jennifer Koh continues to dazzle audiences with playing that combines intensity of temperament with a patrician poise and elegance, qualities that she brings to music old and new in equal measure. As a virtuoso whose natural flair is combined with a probing intellectual acuity, Ms. Koh is committed to exploring connections between the pieces she plays, searching for similarities of voice between different composers, as well as within the works of a single composer. Accordingly, her programs often present rare and revealing juxtapositions, offering works by composers as divergent as Mozart and Ornette Coleman, Schubert and Wuorinen. Having received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Oberlin College and a performance diploma in music from the Oberlin Conservatory, Ms. Koh maintains a lively interest in writing and literature. Her innovative outreach ideas and her approach to the study of the composers are enriched by a broad educational background. Ms. Koh revels in the unexpected.

For the 2007-08 season Ms. Koh has a very active schedule as guest soloist with important symphony orchestras, as recitalist, and as chamber musician. Ms. Koh is heard in works ranging from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the Detroit Symphony under Nicholas McGegan to Kaija Saariaho’s “Graal théâtre” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Lionel Bringuier, to the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s concerto “The Singing Rooms” with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach. She also performs with the Memphis Symphony under conductor David Loebel (Leonard Bernstein “Serenade”); with the Pensacola (FL) Symphony under conductor Peter Rubardt (Tchaikovsky Concerto); with the Quad City Symphony (IA) under Peter Rubardt (Sibelius Concerto); in Israel with the Raanana Symphonette under conductor Nir Kabaretti (Mendelssohn Double Concerto with pianist Benjamin Hochman); with the Stockton (CA) Symphony under conductor Peter Jaffe (Brahms Concerto); and with the Rochester Philharmonic under conductor Alexander Mickelthwate (Stravinsky Concerto). She is also heard in Boston with the Cantata Singers under conductor David Hoose (Kurt Weill Concerto). Ms. Koh is heard in recital performing programs featuring works of Mozart and Zorn as well as all three Brahms sonatas at the Carlsen Center in Kansas City, the University of Chicago and in Ein Hashofet and Jerusalem, Israel. In addition Ms. Koh will make two appearances in New York City at Columbia University’s prestigious Miller Theatre in a “Composer Portrait” concert devoted to the music of Peter Lieberson (February 21, 2008) and in a world premiere performance of Laura Schwendinger’s Violin Concerto – as part of Miller Theatre’s “Pocket Concerto” series (March 27, 2008).

The 2006-07 season found Ms. Koh in increasingly high demand as a guest soloist with important American orchestras and in recital at several of the country’s most prestigious venues. She was heard as soloist with the Oregon Symphony, Marin (CA) Symphony, Spokane Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Whatcom (WA) Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Orchestra 2001, Greenwich Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, and Annapolis Symphony. Her recital engagements included performances in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center, in San Francisco at the Herbst Theater, in San Juan (PR), at Oberlin College and in New York at the 92nd Street Y. Ms. Koh’s debut with the New Jersey Symphony under George Manahan was a particular triumph prompting the following from Bradley Bambarger of the New Jersey Star-Ledger:

The 30 –year Koh is often seen around the area playing music far more modern than the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Adams and other contemporary composers are usually her bailiwick live (and recent recordings feature her in works from Syzmanowski to Ornette Coleman). But, like many fiddlers, Koh grew up with the Tchaikovsky, and she managed to strip a bit of the lacquer off the score. An endearing presence, Koh also has chops aplenty. She negotiated the first Movement cadenza’s many technical hurdles — slurring slides, extended trills, dramatic double-stops, high harmonics — with sizzling articulation. Unlike more heavy- handed violinists, she also kept the sweeter moments from becoming saccharine. (January 8, 2007)

Continuing her commitment to new music, Ms. Koh premiered two new works which were commissioned especially for her. "String Poetic" for violin and piano by Jennifer Higdon, commissioned for Ms. Koh by the 92nd St Y, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, San Francisco Performances, Johnson County Community College, and Oberlin College received its world premiere performance in October, 2006 and “Spin 5,” a violin concerto by Charles Wuorinen, commissioned for Ms. Koh by the Miller Theatre, was premiered in April, 2007.

In July 2006 Ms. Koh made her debut with the New York Philharmonic performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in their Concerts in the Parks series in New York and in Vail, CO during the orchestra’s residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Vivien Schweitzer of The New York Times reviewed Ms. Koh’s debut performances with the New York Philharmonic (under conductor Xian Zhang) as follows:

Ms. Koh, a young graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, has excited new-music circles recently with her performances of contemporary works. Here she built on her equally strong track record in repertory staples with the concerto that won her a silver medal at the 1994 Tchaikovsky violin competition in Moscow.

Ms. Zhang, in her white jacket, and Ms. Koh, in a floor-length pink gown, made a visibly arresting duo, poised and elegant. But where Ms. Zhang’s gestures were precise and controlled, Ms. Koh was more the flamboyant free spirit. Her fiery, rhapsodic playing was well balanced against Ms. Zhang’s firm control and steady pulse.

Like all war horses, the Tchaikovsky concerto needs imagination and flair to revive it, and Ms. Koh provided both, from a leisurely, warmly lyrical first movement to a feisty and volatile finale. (July 15, 2006)

During the 2005-06 season Ms. Koh performed the Ligeti Violin Concerto (with a cadenza written expressly for her by John Zorn) with the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva and at the Holland Festival at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and with the OFUNAM Orchestra in Mexico City. She was guest soloist with the Wheeling (WV) Symphony, Oshkosh Symphony (WI), Honolulu Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic under Christopher Hogwood (Martin? Double Concerto), Oberlin College’s Contemporary Ensemble at Oberlin College and Columbia University’s Miller Theatre in New York (Ligeti Violin Concerto), at the Kimmel Center’s Perleman Theatre in Philadelphia with Jaime Laredo and the Curtis Orchestra (Mozart Symphonie Concertante) and in the same repertoire and with the same forces at New York’s Town Hall. She was also heard at the Festival International de Lanaudiere in Quebec, CA and at the Salt Bay ChamberFest in Damariscotta, ME.

Other solo appearances have taken place with the Santa Barbara (CA) Symphony, Lubbock (TX) Symphony, and Delaware Symphony. Ms Koh appeared in recital at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater with pianist Reiko Uchida, the Supreme Court Recital series in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia Art Museum, the Ventura Music Festival, Pacific Symphony Orchestra (with pianist Ursula Oppens), and in chamber music performances at New York’s 92nd Street Y with Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Kim Kashkashian, and Zuill Bailey.

Ms Koh was chosen to present the Arison Award to Michael Tilson Thomas at the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts conference in Miami and performed with him and the New World Symphony at that event.

During 2004-05 Ms. Koh toured Florida (Sarasota, Vero Beach, Orlando) with the New World Symphony as featured guest soloist and was heard as soloist with the San Diego Symphony under Jahja Ling, Singapore Symphony with Gerard Schwarz, at the Season Opener of Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, Colonial Symphony in Morristown, NJ, Pensacola Symphony, Stamford Symphony, and New Philharmonic in Glen Ellyn, IL. Ms. Koh also performed in solo recital at New York City’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in chamber concert (with Jaime Laredo and Leon Fleisher) at the 92nd St. Y, at the Curtis Institute Founders Day Concert in Philadelphia, at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, in Chicago in live recital at WMFT, and in San Francisco, Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, Korea. Ms. Koh was also heard in a performance of Tan Dun’s “Water Passion” conducted by the composer at New York’s South Street Seaport as part of the River to River Festival.

Allan Kozinn of The New York Times gave a glowing review of Ms. Koh’s recital at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art with pianist Reiko Uchida:

In John Adams’s “Road Movies” (1995) they easily met the work’s immediate technical challenge – keeping the insistent rhythms vital and fresh – but they also found ways to make this sometimes motoric piece seem supple. Ms. Koh also offered a gripping performance of Eka-Pekka Salonen’s “Lachen Verlernt” (2002), a piece that begins with a songlike simplicity but gradually becomes a study in full-throttle virtuosity. Between the Adams and the Salonen works, Ms. Koh and Ms. Uchida played Ravel’s Sonata in G with a combination of Gallic sensuality and American flexibility. In the central Blues movement, Ms. Koh’s bent pitches and throaty tone color were exactly what the score needs: Stephane Grappelli couldn’t have made it sound more bluesy. (April 30, 2005)

During the summer of 2003, Ms. Koh was heard at the Blossom Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra in Menotti’s Violin Concerto under conductor Jahja Ling. At the beginning of the 2003-04 season, she was a featured soloist in the historic concert opening Carnegie Hall’s long-awaited Zankel Hall, performing Lou Harrison’s “Concerto in slendro,” conducted by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams. Other highlights of that season included performances of the Menotti Violin Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Richard Hickox, the Martinu Double Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Zdenek Macal, the Bach Double Concerto with the Saint Louis Symphony conducted by Jaime Laredo (who also doubled as violin soloist), as well as appearances with the KBS Symphony of Seoul, Korea, and the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark.

After her recital in early 2004 at New York’s Town Hall, Jeremy Eichler of The New York Times praised Ms. Koh in the following terms:

Her (Ms. Koh’s) playing was fiery and impassioned, most of all in Ysaye’s Sonata No. 4, where she routinely pushed notes almost to their breaking point in a way that sent the pulse racing. The sonata was written in the early 20th century, but in her hands it felt thrillingly modern. (January 20, 2004)

Ms. Koh’s most recent recording, a CD devoted to the complete Schumann Sonatas for Violin and Piano recorded with pianist Reiko Uchida, was released by Cedille during the 2006-07 season. This recording received the following praise from Jerry Dubins in Fanfare Magazine:

Based on the evidence of this new Schumann CD, I wouldn’t be in the least hesitant to place Koh’s name among the “big star” violinists . . . Her playing on this disc is of a transfiguring refinement and beauty that somehow manages to blend a sense of angelic chastity with a sense of profound human knowingness. In his good years, this was what Menuhin sounded like. Pianist Reiko Uchida vibrates in resonance with Koh as a silvery sun-drenched willow reed sways in the breeze. Don’t be surprised to see this entry show up on my 2007 Want List. This is a must-have for all chamber music-lovers. (July 2007)

Also released on Cedille was Ms. Koh’s “Portraits” which features the Szymanowski, and Martin? violin concertos recorded with the Grant Park Orchestra under conductor Carlos Kalmar. Her recording “Violin Fantasies,” for the Cedille label, has been praised for its sense of adventure and brilliant musicianship. In the words of John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune, “The idea of a concept album built around violin fantasies from various periods by composers with distinctly different voices is so good I’m surprised other fiddlers haven’t ventured it. Jennifer Koh, the young violinist on this new Cedille recording, regards each of the four fantasies (Schubert, Schumann, Schoenberg, Ornette Coleman) as a ‘life’s journey,’ and something of that spirit of high adventure informs her collaboration with pianist Reiko Uchida.” Ms. Koh’s first Cedille recording was an imaginative program centered on Bach’s great Chaconne (with solo chaconnes by turn of the century contemporaries Richard Barth, and Max Reger). For 2007-08, Ms. Koh is scheduled to release a recording of music by American composers including John Adams, Lou Harrison, Jennifer Higdon and Carl Ruggles on the Cedille label.

Since the 1994-95 season, when she won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ms. Koh has been heard with leading orchestras and conductors around the world, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony (under Yakov Kreizberg,) the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit symphony, the New World Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, the Kyushu Orchestra of Japan, the Dortmund Philharmonic of Germany, Houston Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Iceland Symphony, Helsinki Symphony, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Radio Symphony, the Moscow State Academy Symphony Orchestra, and the Brandenburg Ensemble. In December 1999, Ms. Koh made her Carnegie Hall debut performing Mozart’s Concerto in A Major (the “Turkish”) with the New York String Orchestra under Jaime Laredo, a performance during which “Ms. Koh drew a lustrous tone from her fine Stradivari, yet kept her sound clear and focused,” according to Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times.

A prolific recitalist, Ms. Koh appears frequently at major music centers and festivals, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Mostly Mozart, Marlboro and Wolf Trap, and with Christoph Eschenbach at Ravinia and Schleswig-Holstein. She is heard annually at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where she recorded Menotti's Violin Concerto live in concert with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox.

A committed educator, Ms. Koh has also won high praise for her performances in classrooms around the country under her innovative Music Messenger outreach program. Now in its sixth year, the program continues to form an important part of her musical activities. “The majority of children in this country have not been given an opportunity to learn music as a form of self-expression ,”she asserts, “and I want to share the experience of creating and listening to music with them.” Ms. Koh’s outreach efforts have taken her to classrooms all over the country to perform challenging music – whether it be Bach, Paganini, or Bartók -- for thousands of students who have little opportunity to hear classical music in their daily lives. "Music is a visceral experience which can create a positive outlet for emotions and a place for inner expression that is more compelling than time spent in front of the television or at a mall,” she adds. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Foundation for the Advancement for the Arts, a scholarship program for high school students in the arts.

Born in Chicago of Korean parents, Ms. Koh currently resides in New York City. Ms. Koh is a graduate of Oberlin College (where she pursued studies in the violin and English literature) and an alumna of the Curtis Institute, where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir. Ms. Koh is grateful to her private sponsor for the generous loan of the 1727 Ex Grumiaux Ex General DuPont Stradivari she uses in performance.