UCSB Arts & Lectures presents violinist Jennifer Koh’s only West Coast performance of selections from Shared Madness, her program of short works by some 30 of today’s most celebrated composers at 7 p.m. Friday, April 27.
The program will be at St. Anthony’s Chapel, 2300 Garden St., Santa Barbara.
Koh’s Shared Madness is a project that speaks to the generous and supportive spirit that thrives within the musical community.
Out of reciprocity toward the benefactors who helped purchase her instrument, the composers created short works for solo violin that explore virtuosity for the violin in the 21st century. All of the composers gifted their music for the project.
Shared Madness premiered over two recitals in May 2016 at National Sawdust as part of the New York Philharmonic’s Biennial.
Koh will perform selections from this adventure that celebrates the creative dialogue between composer and performer as well as the commitment to fostering new music.
Featured composers include: Vijay Iyer, Gabriel Kahane, John Harbison and Julia Wolfe.
Koh is recognized for her commanding performances, delivered with virtuosity and technical assurance.
An adventurous musician, she collaborates with artists of multiple disciplines and curates projects that find connections between music of all eras from traditional to contemporary.
She believes all the arts and music of the past and present form a continuum. She has premiered more than 60 works written especially for her.
Musical America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year, Koh’s foray into curating projects has led her to commission works by today’s foremost composers.
Her Bridge to Beethoven recital series, performed with pianist Shai Wosner, explores the impact and significance Beethoven has had on a diverse group of composers and musicians.
Pairing Beethoven’s 10 sonatas for violin and piano with new works by composers Iyer, Andrew Norman and Anthony Cheung over four programs, the project seeks to ignite conversations around Beethoven not only as a cornerstone of classical music but as a universal source of inspiration.
Bach and Beyond is a three-recital series that traces the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas to composers ranging from Bartók, Berio, Carter, Salonen and Ysaÿe with commissions and world premieres by composers John Harbison, Phil Kline, Missy Mazzoli, Kaija Saariaho and video artist Tal Rosner.
Her latest album, Tchaikovsky: Complete Works for Violin and Orchestra with the Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Vedernikov, released in September 2016, is Koh’s 11th recording for the Cedille Records label.
Koh first performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto conducted by Vedernikov in the final round of the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 1992.
Koh is the 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.
The organization supports artistic collaborations and commissions, transforming the creative process by engaging with specific ideas and perspectives, investing in the future by cultivating artist-citizens in partnership with educational organizations.
Born in Chicago of Korean parents, Koh began playing the violin by chance, choosing the instrument in a Suzuki-method program only because spaces for cello and piano had been filled.
She made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11 and went on to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1994, as well as the Concert Artists Guild Competition and an Avery Fisher Career Grant that season.
Koh has been heard with leading orchestras including the Helsinki, New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; Cleveland, Mariinsky, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Philharmonia (London) orchestras; and Atlanta, Baltimore, BBC, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, National, New World and Singapore symphonies.
Koh has a BA in English literature from Oberlin College and studied at the Curtis Institute.
In a related event, there will be a free conversation with Koh — Creative Inquiry, Intersection and Intervention — moderated by Lisa Park, chair, UCSB Asian American Studies, 4-5 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the UCSB College of Creative Studies Gallery
The talk is co-presented by Arts & Lectures, Asian American Studies and the College of Creative Studies.
Concert tickets are $35 for the general public, $10 for all students with valid. For tickets and information, call 893-3535 or visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
— Caitlin O’Hara for UCSB Arts & Lectures.