Jennifer Koh
Shared Madness:
New Work for Solo Violin

Saturday, February 10, 2018 | 8:00 pm

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Sunday, February 11, 2018 | 3:00 pm

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Rubenstein Arts Center | von der Heyden Studio Theater

Shared Madness began with an immense debt. For eight years, the violinist Jennifer Koh — “a prodigious builder of musical bridges,” according to the Los Angeles Times — struggled to pay off the loan she had taken for her instrument. At one point, she even considered declaring bankruptcy. While teetering on that brink, however, she met Justus and Elizabeth Schlichting, patrons who agreed to take on her debt in exchange for new commissions for Koh and her violin. They got an astounding thirty-two new works.

Debuted during the New York Philharmonic’s Second Biennial, the two concerts of Shared Madness includes thirty-two short pieces from composers whom Koh considers her friends. It is a marvelous study of violin virtuosity for the twenty-first century, inspired by Paganini’s Caprices. At the two concerts at Duke’s 200-seat von der Heyden Studio Theater in the new Rubenstein Arts Center, there is Julia Wolfe’s breathless Spinning Jenny; Vijay Iyer’s quixotic Zany, Cute, Interesting; and Gabriel Kahane’s playfully metatextual The Single Art Form Is Dead. Koh also introduces Philip Glass’ stately take on the sarabande form, Sarabande in Common Time, and Michael Gordon’s electrifying kwerk. Each of these two concerts is ticketed separately.

Parking for Duke Performances presentations at the Rubenstein Arts Center, including Shared Madness, is available directly across the street from the venue in the Campus Drive Lot, approximately a one-minute walk. The entrance to this lot is on Anderson Street, just north of Campus Drive, facing the west side of the Rubenstein Arts Center. A crossing guard will be stationed near the entrance of the Campus Drive lot before and after each show to allow you to cross the street safely.

Program

“The composers put Ms. Koh through her paces with athletic works that employed many of the challenges Paganini specialized in: extreme jumps in register, double- and triple-stopped notes, trills, blurs of fast runs and arpeggios.”