Jennifer Koh (born 1976) is an American

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, born to

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

parents in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Life and career

Koh earned a B.A. in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, as well as a Performance Diploma from the attached

Oberlin Conservatory The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory of Oberlin College, a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in ...

. She is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute and was the top medalist in the 1994

Tchaikovsky Competition The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 32 years of age and singers between 19 and 32 years of ...

. That year she also won a scholarship from the

Concert Artists Guild The Concert Artists Guild is an American musical institution, based in New York City and established in 1951. It is dedicated to discovering and nurturing musical talent, and helping musicians start careers. It provides scholarships and grants, and ...

. She received an

Avery Fisher Career Grant The Avery Fisher Career Grant, established by Avery Fisher, is an award given to up to five outstanding instrumentalists each year (since 2004, chamber music groups are also eligible). The Career Grants are a part of the Avery Fisher Artist Program ...

in 1995. Koh has performed extensively with such orchestras as the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

, Czech Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales,

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, ...

, Saint Louis Symphony, and

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". T ...

and is an advocate of

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a rese ...

for children. She is lauded for her programs of Bach. She performed and recorded a series "Bach and Beyond" which has received high critical praise. She frequently premieres and records contemporary music of composers like

Kaija Saariaho Kaija Anneli Saariaho (; ; 14 October 1952 – 2 June 2023) was a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. During the course of her career, Saariaho received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the En ...

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

, and

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish conducting, conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Sw ...

. In 2012, Koh was a featured performer in the revival of the

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

/ Robert Wilson opera ''

Einstein on the Beach ''Einstein on the Beach'' is an opera in four acts composed by Philip Glass with libretto in collaboration with Robert Wilson (director), Robert Wilson, who also designed and directed early productions. The opera eschews traditional narrative in ...

'', portraying the role of Einstein. Koh is a faculty member at the Mannes School of Music. One of Koh's most memorable projects, ''Alone Together'', granted her a new level of visibility during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Created in response to the global crisis, this project brought attention to the financial hardship experienced by so many in the arts community. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' described ''Alone Together'' as "a marvel for a time of crisis" and "more inclusive than anything in mainstream classical music." In February 2022, the National Symphony Orchestra commissioned Missy Mazzoli's Violin Concerto (Procession), performed by Koh at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall. In April 2022, Jennifer Koh collaborated with American operatic bass-baritone Davóne Tines to curate ''Everything Rises'', a multimedia production featuring music, projections and actual interview recordings telling the story their individual family histories. Koh and Tines saw in each other an ally struggling with the same issue of being an artist of color in a culture dominated by whiteness. This project was developed over multiple years by an all- BIPOC creative team and received its world premiere at

UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined ...

Arts and Lectures. Koh's mother Gertrude Soonja Lee shared stories of the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

and immigration to the U.S. while Tines' grandmother Alma Lee Gibbs Tines dove into memories of anti-Black discrimination and violence. Koh and Tines aimed to create a united front through music, heavily inspired by the recent uproar of activism and solidarity across all racial identities in 2022. On December 8, 2022, Koh was appointed Artistic Director of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., replacing Joseph Kalichstein, who died in March 2022. This appointment extends into spring 2026, and her first season of programming is the 2024–2025 season. Jennifer Koh continued showcasing highlights from her collaborations with composer Missy Mazzoli on March 13, 2024 during her premiere with

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

Tiny Desk Concerts ''Tiny Desk Concerts'' is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of former ''All Songs Considered'' host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C. The first ''Tiny Desk Concert'' came about in 2008 after Boilen and NPR Music edit ...

. Tom Huizenga for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

commented that, "In all its rugged delight," the performance was a "fruitful, collaborative friendship between composer and performer that has yielded amazing music."

Discography

References

External links

Jennifer Koh official website

by Bruce Duffie, June 30, 2004 * performance of ''Mood'' (1918) by

Carl Ruggles Carl Ruggles (born Charles Sprague Ruggles; March 11, 1876 – October 24, 1971) was an American composer, painter and teacher. His pieces employed "dissonant counterpoint", a term coined by fellow composer and musicologist Charles Seeger to ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koh, Jennifer 1976 births Living people American women violinists People from Glen Ellyn, Illinois Oberlin College alumni Curtis Institute of Music alumni American musicians of Korean descent Cedille Records artists Women classical violinists 20th-century American women musicians 21st-century American women musicians Classical musicians from Illinois Grammy Award winners 20th-century American classical violinists 21st-century American classical violinists

Life and career

Discography

Further reading

References

External links