Alone Together Jennifer Koh

• Wang Lu (b. 1982):
• 1Lu: Hover and Recede01:25
• Joungbum Lee:
• 2Lee: Hovering Green02:29
• Morgan Guerin (b. 1998):
• 3Guerin: Together, But Alone (In Quarantine)00:47
• Vijay Iyer (b. 1971):
• 4Iyer: For Violin Alone02:51
• Sarah Gibson:
• 5Gibson: You Are Still Here03:43
• Darian Donovan Thomas & Ian Cheng (b. 1991):
• 6Thomas, Cheng: Art | Nat01:01
• Tonia Ko (b. 1988):
• 7Ko: The Fragile Season01:33
• Thomas Kotcheff (b. 1988):
• 8Kotcheff: Vacuum Packed02:58
• Nina C. Young (b. 1984):
• 9Young: There Had Been Signs, Surely02:09
• Adeliia Faizullina (b. 1988):
• 10Faizullina: Urman02:04
• Jen Shyu (b. 1978):
• 11Shyu: The River in My Mind03:29
• inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993):
• 12figgis-vizueta: Quiet City (& Easter Bells from the Bowery)01:52
• Ellen Reid (b. 1983):
• 13Reid: Brick Red Moon01:48
• Rajna Swaminathan:
• 14Swaminathan: Kindling04:01
• Anthony Cheung (b. 1982):
• 15Cheung: 2 Miniatures: No. 1, Springs Eternal02:45
• Tomás Gueglio-Saccone:
• 16Gueglio-Saccone: Nocturno Lamarque01:59
• Anjna Swaminathan:
• 17Swaminathan: A Beloved Within02:50
• Layale Chaker (b. 1990):
• 18Chaker: Bond of the Beloved04:28
• David Serkin Ludwig (b. 1974):
• 19Ludwig: All the Rage02:00
• Elizabeth Younan (b. 1994):
• 20Younan: Your Heart Dreams of Spring03:14
• Rafiq Bhatia (b. 1987):
• 21Bhatia: Descent01:32
• Hanna Benn:
• 22Benn: Exhalation02:24
• Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980):
• 23Mazzoli: Hail, Horrors, Hail02:24
• Cassie Wieland (b. 1994):
• 24Wieland: Shiner01:06
• Katherine Balch (b. 1991):
• 25Balch: Cleaning00:49
• Andrew Norman (b. 1979):
• 26Norman: Turns of Phrase03:02
• Angélica Negrón (b. 1981):
• 27Negrón: Cooper and Emma01:18
• Tania León (b. 1943):
• 28León: Anima03:55
• Caroline Davis (b. 1981):
• 29Davis: Heart Rituals04:03
• Nina Shekhar:
• 30Shekhar: Warm in My Veins05:19
• Qasim Naqvi:
• 31Naqvi: Hal01:16
• Shayna Dunkelman:
• 32Dunkelman: Afterglow01:45
• Du Yun (b. 1977):
• 33Yun: Windowsills03:39
• George Lewis (b. 1952):
• 34Lewis: Un petit brouillard cérébral03:03
• Lester St. Lewis:
• 35Lewis: Ultraviolet, Efflorescent01:02
• Sugar Vendil:
• 36Vendil: Simple Tasks II (Six-Day Deadline)03:37
• Patrick Castillo:
• 37Castillo: Mina Cecilia's Constitutional01:28
• Vincent Calianno:
• 38Calianno: Ashliner00:53
• Kati Agócs (b. 1975):
• 39Agócs: Thirst and Quenching03:37
• Total Runtime01:35:38

Info for Alone Together

American violinist Jennifer Koh’s new recording, Alone Together is based on her online performance series of the same name, created in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the financial hardship it has placed on so many in the arts community. The New York Times called Alone Together “a marvel for a time of crisis” and the lineup of composers “more inclusive than anything in mainstream classical music.”

Koh has been highly visible during the pandemic as a result of Alone Together, which features short new works donated by established composers and commissioned from talented young composers who may be struggling financially because of the COVID-19 crisis. Koh performs 39 world premiere recordings of works by established composers such as Du Yun, Vijay Iyer, Tania Léon, George Lewis, Missy Mazzoli, Ellen Reid, and Wang Lu and the emerging composers they recommended including Katherine Balch, Nina Shekhar, Lester St. Louis, Rajna Swaminathan, Darian Donovan Thomas, and Sugar Vendil.

“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.

"Our musical community has given me a sense of hope and light during these difficult times. 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.” (Jennifer Koh)

Jennifer Koh, violin

Jennifer Koh
is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. With an impassioned musical curiosity, she is forging an artistic path of her own devising, choosing works that both inspire and challenge. She is dedicated to performing the violin repertoire of all eras from traditional to contemporary, believing that the past and present form a continuum.

The exploration of Bach’s music and its influence in today’s musical landscape has played an important role in Ms. Koh’s artistic journey. She is also passionate in her efforts to expand the violin repertoire and has established relationships with many of today’s composers, regularly commissioning and premiering new works. In 2009 she debuted “Bach and Beyond” a three recital series that explores the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas to works by modern day composers and new commissions. In 2012, she launched “Two x Four” —a project that pairs Bach’s Double

Violin Concerto with newly commissioned double concerti—with her former teacher from the Curtis Institute of Music, violinist Jaime Laredo. She frequently performs the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas in a single concert.

Ms. Koh has been heard with leading orchestras around the world including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and the Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, New World, Montreal, and National Symphonies. Abroad she has appeared with the Czech Philharmonic, BBC London and Scottish Symphonies, Helsinki Philharmonic, Lahti Symphony, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, and Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo in Brazil. A prolific recitalist, she frequently appears at major music centers and festivals.

Highlights of her 2013–14 season include “Bach and Beyond” recitals worldwide and “Two x Four” concerts with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. She makes her Munich Philharmonic debut performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto conducted by Lorin Maazel, and performs Barber’s Violin Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra, Berg’s Violin Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. She will perform the role of Einstein in Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach in Los Angeles. Her New York concerts include the U.S. premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Frises for violin and electronics and Bach’s Partita No. 2 at Miller Theatre and the New York premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s The Singing Rooms, a concerto for violin and chorus, with the New York Choral Society at Carnegie Hall.

Signs, Games + Messages is Ms. Koh’s eighth recording for Cedille Records. Other albums include Bach & Beyond Part 1, Rhapsodic Musings: 21st Century Works for Solo Violin; the Grammy-nominated String Poetic, featuring the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s eponymous work, performed with pianist Reiko Uchida; Schumann’s complete violin sonatas (also with Uchida); Portraits with the Grant Park Orchestra under Carlos Kalmar, featuring concertos by Szymanowski, Martinu, and Bartók; Violin Fantasies: fantasies for violin and piano by Schubert, Schumann, Schoenberg, and saxophonist Ornette Coleman (with Uchida); and her first Cedille album, from 2002, Solo Chaconnes, an earlier reading of Bach’s Second Partita coupled with chaconnes by Richard Barth and Max Reger.

Born in Chicago of Korean parents, Ms. 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, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Ms. Koh has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin College and studied at the Curtis Institute, where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir.

This album contains no booklet.