Violinist Jennifer Koh Receives Best Instrumental Solo Grammy Award For 'Alone Together'

Korean American violinist Jennifer Koh has been awarded the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo for her recording Alone Together, released by Cedille Records and 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 many in the arts community. The album features 39 world premiere recordings of new works by established and emerging composers. Ms. Koh received the award at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony held in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 3.

Alone Together features short new works donated by established composers and commissioned from talented young composers who may have been struggling financially because of the COVID-19 crisis. The New York Times called the series "a marvel for a time of crisis" and the lineup of composers "more inclusive than anything in mainstream classical music."

"Alone Together began as a project for our community of musicians to come together to support our younger freelance colleagues at the start of the pandemic," said Ms. Koh. "I could have never imagined that two years later it would be nominated for a Grammy, let alone win. I am grateful to each of the composers who wrote powerful music that communicated what we felt at that time. Their work has now become a musical archive of the first months of the pandemic in the United States.

"I am honored to be a member of such a generous and caring group of colleagues. I want to thank the amazing composers who wrote the works for Alone Together and my fellow Grammy Award-winning producer on this album, Judith Sherman. Thank you to Cedille Records for making this album possible and thank you to all the donors of ARCO Collaborative who made this project to support young artists possible. I thank the Recording Academy for honoring me as the first Korean American woman to win a Grammy in this category."

On Alone Together Ms. 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 emerging composers including Katherine Balch, Nina Shekhar, Lester St. Louis, Rajna Swaminathan, Darian Donovan Thomas, and Sugar Vendil, among others.

Alone Together is Ms. Koh's 15th Cedille Records album. The recording follows Bach & Beyond Part 3, the final installment in her critically acclaimed series tracing the history of the solo violin repertoire from J.S. Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas to 20th- and 21st-century composers (released in 2020). Both Alone Together and Bach & Beyond Part 3 are produced by Judith Sherman who won the Producer of the Year, Classical Grammy Award for her work on these albums and others. Recorded February 11 and 18 and March 23-24 at Oktaven Audio in Mount Vernon, NY, Alone Together is engineered by Charles Mueller, and mastered by Bill Maylone.

Alone Together was commissioned and produced by ARCO Collaborative with the support of commissioning partners National YoungArts Foundation and generous individual donors of ARCO Collaborative.

Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. A forward-thinking artist, she is dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire, while promoting equity and inclusivity in classical music. She has expanded the contemporary violin repertoire through a wide range of commissioning projects, and has premiered more than 100 works written especially for her. Her quest for the new and unusual, sense of endless curiosity, and ability to lead and inspire a host of multidisciplinary collaborators, truly set her apart.

In addition to Alone Together, Ms. Koh's series include The New American Concerto, which invites a diverse collective of composers to examine socio-cultural topics relevant to American life today through the form of the violin concerto; Limitless, which explores the relationship between composer and performer through duo works played by Ms. Koh and the composers themselves; Bach and Beyond, which traces the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach's sonatas and partitas to pieces by 20th- and 21st-century composers; and Shared Madness, comprising short solo works that explore virtuosity in the 21st century, commissioned from over thirty composers.

Ms. Koh performs a broad range of concertos that reflects the breadth of her musical interests from traditional to contemporary. Highlights of her orchestral appearances have included performances with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics; the Cleveland, Mariinsky Theatre, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Philharmonia (London) Orchestras; the Atlanta, Baltimore, BBC, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, Montreal, Nashville, National, New Jersey, New World, NHK (Tokyo), Pittsburgh, RAI National (Torino), St. Louis, Seattle, and Singapore Symphony Orchestras; and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, among other ensembles.

She has been honored as "A Force of Nature" by the American Composers Orchestra and as Musical America's 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year. Ms. Koh has won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Concert Artists Guild Competition, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is an active lecturer, teacher, and recording artist for Cedille Records.

Alone Together
Cedille Records: 90000 3011

Jennifer Koh, violin

1 WANG LU: Hover and Recede (1:25)
2 JOUNGBUM LEE: hovering green (2:29)
3 MORGAN GUERIN: Together, But Alone (In Quarantine) (0:47)
4 VIJAY IYER: for violin alone (2:51)
5 SARAH GIBSON: You are still here (3:43)
6 DARIAN DONOVAN THOMAS: Art I Nat (1:01) with Ian Chang, electronics
7 TONIA KO: The Fragile Season (1:33)
8 THOMAS KOTCHEFF: vacuum packed (2:58)
9 NINA C. YOUNG: There had been signs, surely (2:09)
10 ADELIIA FAIZULLINA: Urman (2:04)
11 JEN SHYU: The River in my Mind (3:29)
12 INTI FIGGIS-VIZUETA: quiet city (1:52)
13 ELLEN REID: Brick Red Mood (1:48)
14 RAJNA SWAMINATHAN: Kindling (4:01)
15 ANTHONY CHEUNG: Springs Eternal (2:45)
16 TOMÁS GUEGLIO-SACCONE: Nocturno Lamarque (1:59)
17 ANJNA SWAMINATHAN: a beloved within (2:50)
18 LAYALE CHAKER: Bond of the Beloved (4:28)
19 DAVID SERKIN LUDWIG: All the Rage (2:00)
20 ELIZABETH YOUNAN: ...your heart dreams of spring. (3:14)
21 RAFIQ BHATIA: Descent (1:32)
22 HANNA BENN: exhalation (2:24)
23 MISSY MAZZOLI: Hail, Horrors, Hail (2:24)
24 CASSIE WIELAND: shiner (1:06)
25 KATHERINE BALCH: Cleaning (0:49)
26 ANDREW NORMAN: Turns of Phrase (3:02)
27 ANGELICA NEGRÓN: Cooper and Emma (1:18)
28 TANIA LEON: Anima (3:55)
29 CAROLINE DAVIS: heart rituals. (4:03)
30 NINA SHEKHAR: warm in my veins (5:19)
31 QASIM NAQVI: HAL (1:16)
32 SHAYNA DUNKELMAN: Afterglow (1:45)
33 DU YUN: Windowsills (3:39)
34 GEORGE LEWIS: Un petit brouillard cérébral (3:03)
35 LESTER ST. LOUIS: Ultraviolet, Efflorescent (1:02)
36 SUGAR VENDIL: Simple Tasks 2: Six-day deadline (3:37)
37 PATRICK CASTILLO: Mina Cecilia's Constitutional (1:28)
38 VINCENT CALIANNO: Ashliner (0:53)
39 KATI AGÓCS: Thirst and Quenching (3:37)