The Goings On About Town section in The New Yorker remains suspended indefinitely in its conventional format, and album reviews prevail, mostly. But with a marked uptick lately in the number of live online events planned and announced well in advance of their occurrence, the possibility of "events listings" has resumed. This week, I've written up a brief preview of Alone Together, a characteristically impressive and thoughtful commissioning initiative undertaken by the violinist Jennifer Koh and her nonprofit organization, ARCO Collaborative. (Click on the image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the text on the New Yorker website.)
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You can watch Koh's performance live this Saturday, April 18, at 7pm EDT, on Instagram or Facebook. Of note: it now appears that this week's presentation will include pieces from still another pair of composers, Anthony Cheung and Tomás Gueglio Saccone, in addition to the two pairs cited in my preview.
Koh also posts supplemental material on those platforms, such as brief video statements from the composers. Following each live webcast, you can watch archived video, along with sessions from previous weeks, on her YouTube channel.
One thing more: A sentence from my original text ended up on the cutting-room floor this week, presumably for reasons of space, and another sentence was altered accordingly. But I liked the way the original draft indicated that this new project is not only Koh's response to current conditions, but also an undertaking very much in keeping with her consistent aims. So, just this once, here's the draft version of the passage to which I'm referring:
In past projects like “Bach and Beyond,” “Bridge to Beethoven,” and “Limitless,” Koh intertwined notions of aesthetic continuity and artistic community, to powerful ends. She explores similar concepts in “Alone Together,” her newest project, but the execution reflects conditions born of the present COVID-19 pandemic: specifically, forced isolation and economic hardship.
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