Artist Spotlight | Jennifer Koh

Violinist Jennifer Koh, wearing a face mask for this Lincoln Center performance, has been a champion for contemporary composers and musicians during the Covid crisis. With continued cancellations of live performances, Jennifer and her non-profit organization arco collaborative found a new way to bring musicians and audiences together through the virtual concert series, #AloneTogether.

Jennifer has also advocated for new works and commissions on her Cedille releases such as 2019’s Limitless and her Bach & Beyond series, pairing contemporary composers with historically significant Bach violin works.

To celebrate the finale of the Bach & Beyond recording series, Jennifer Koh presents a video performance of the third movement from Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A minor. She also reflects on her own personal history with the piece, and returning to Lincoln Center for its performance:

I programmed Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A minor as the first work in the first program that I performed for a live audience since the beginning of the pandemic’s sweep through the United States and Europe and the cancellation of live performances.

For me, this work is the beginning of an evolution in Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas and I believe that the third movement of this work with its delicate pulsation holds the heartbeat of the artist that Bach will become.

I chose this Sonata for my return to performing because that concert at Lincoln Center was the chrysalis of my heartbeat and life emerging into a new world.