LACO Presents World Premiere by Nina C. Young Featuring Violin Virtuoso Jennifer Koh Works by Mendelssohn and C.P.E. Bach

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Conductor Laureate Jeffrey Kahane, “a precise and demanding presence on the podium” (Orange County Register), returns to the Orchestra to conduct the world premiere of Nina C. Young’s Violin Concerto: Traces, written for violinist Jennifer Koh, who is featured on the premiere, on Saturday, November 11, 2023, 8 pm, at Glendale’s Alex Theatre, and Sunday, November 12, 2023, 7 pm, at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Young, whose work was co-commissioned by LACO and the Philadelphia Orchestra, is known for creating electroacoustic music imbued with vibrant, arresting immediacy.

The concert, embracing themes of remembering and reimagining, also includes Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor, “Scottish,” influenced by the German composer’s travels through Scotland as a young man as part of a multi-year Grand Tour of Europe, and C.P.E. Bach’s minimalistic Sinfonia in D major.

The program is part of the state-wide California Festival: A Celebration of New Music, a two-week event November 3-19, 2023, showcasing the most compelling and forward-looking voices from around the world in performances of new works written within the past five years. The initiative is a collaboration among more than 50 music institutions from across California with outreach support from the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO).   

Koh, recognized for intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance, is a forward-thinking artist dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire, while promoting diversity and inclusivity in classical music. She has expanded the contemporary violin repertoire through a wide range of commissioning projects and has premiered more than 70 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. Born in Chicago to Korean parents, Jennifer 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. She has been honored as Musical America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year, top prize winner at Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition, winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

The featured performance of Jennifer Koh is made possible, in part, with the generous support from Terri Jerry Kohl, Shaheen  Anil Nanji and Hervey Doris Segall. 

LACO recognizes the generous support of the Colburn Foundation. The Orchestra also receives public funding via grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; State of California; California Arts Council; the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. LACO gratefully acknowledges Hogan Lovells US LLP for generous pro bono support. Steinway is the official piano of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.  

The Alex Theatre is located at 216 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91203. Royce Hall is located at 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095. For tickets ($32 - $142) and information, please visit www.laco.org or call 213 221 3920.

LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (LACO) ranks among the world’s top musical ensembles. Beloved by audiences and praised by critics, the Orchestra is a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, a champion of contemporary composers. Headquartered in the heart of the country's cultural capital, LACO has been proclaimed “America’s finest chamber orchestra” (Public Radio International), “LA’s most unintimidating chamber music experience” (Los Angeles magazine), “resplendent” (Los Angeles Times), and “one of the world's great chamber orchestras"(KUSC Classical FM). Performing throughout greater Los Angeles, the Orchestra has made 32 recordings, including, most recently, a 2019 BIS Records release of works for violin and chamber orchestra that features Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and the world premiere recording of Pierre Jalbert’s Violin Concerto (a LACO co-commission). LACO, with offices located in downtown Los Angeles, has toured Europe, South America and Japan, and performed across North America. www.laco.org. 

JEFFREY KAHANE, equally at home at the keyboard or on the podium, has established an international reputation as a truly versatile artist, recognized by audiences around the world for his mastery of a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin, Golijov and John Adams. Kahane appears as soloist with major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chicago and San Francisco symphonies, among many others and is also a popular artist at all the major U.S. summer festivals, including Aspen, Blossom, Caramoor, Mostly Mozart and Ravinia. In August 2016 he was appointed Music Director of the Sarasota Music Festival. Kahane made his conducting debut at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1988. Since then, he has guest conducted many of the major U.S. orchestras. He served as the Music Director of the Colorado Symphony from the 2005-06 season through the 2009-10 season, and for ten seasons he was Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony, where he is now Conductor Laureate. In May 2017, Kahane completed his 20th and final season as Music Director of LACO. He has recorded for the SONY, EMI, Telarc, RCA, Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin Records, Decca/Argo and Haenssler labels in collaboration with the New World, Cincinnati, Bournemouth and Oregon Bach Festival symphonies. He has also recorded works by Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma, the complete works for violin and piano by Schubert with Joseph Swensen and Bach concertos with LACO and Hilary Hahn. A native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Kahane's early piano studies were with Howard Weisel and Jakob Gimpel. First Prize winner at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition and a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, he was also the recipient of a 1983 Avery Fisher Career Grant. An avid linguist who reads widely in a number of ancient and modern languages, Kahane received a Master’s Degree in Classics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011. He is currently a Professor of Keyboard Studies at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.