Guest Artist Bios

	JENNIFER KOH, Violinist Jennifer Koh is a risk-taking, high-octane player of the kind who grabs the listener by the ears and refuses to let go. Unlike so many players of this temperament however, she supports her mesmerizing flights of fancy with a beguilingly silvery tone, fabulous technique and dead center intonation. --The Strad   more >
	DAVID BILGER, Trumpet Hailed by the New York Times for his playing of "easy brilliance" and by the Washington Post for his "engaging legato touch," David Bilger has held the position of principal trumpet of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995. Prior to joining the Orchestra, he held the same position with the Dallas Symphony.   more >

Violinist Jennifer Koh continues to dazzle audiences with her ability to fuse intensity of temperament with a classical poise and elegance. In the words of The New York Times she is a "fearless soloist," who has a formidable capacity for "living through" the music she performs on stage. As a virtuoso whose natural flair is combined with a probing intellectual acuity, Ms. Koh is committed to exploring connections between the pieces she plays, searching for similarities of voice between different composers, as well as within the works of a single composer. Accordingly, her programs often present rare and revealing juxtapositions, offering works by composers as divergent as Mozart and Ornette Coleman, Schubert and Wuorinen. Having received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Oberlin College and a performance diploma in music from the Oberlin Conservatory, Ms. Koh maintains a lively interest in writing and literature. Her innovative outreach ideas and her approach to the study of the composers are enriched by a broad educational background. Ms. Koh revels in the unexpected.

During the 2005-06 season Ms. Koh performs the Ligeti Violin Concerto (with a cadenza written expressly for her by John Zorn) with the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva and at the Holland Festival at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and with the OFUNAM Orchestra in Mexico City. She is also heard as guest soloist with the Wheeling (WV) Symphony; Oshkosh Symphony (WI), Honolulu Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic under Christopher Hogwood (Martinu Double Concerto), Oberlin College's Contemporary Ensemble at Oberlin College and Columbia University's Miller Theatre in New York (Ligeti Violin Concerto), at the Kimmel Center's Perleman Theatre in Philadelphia with Jaime Laredo and the Curtis Orchestra (Mozart Symphonie Concertante) and in the same repertoire and with the same forces at New York's Town Hall. Other solo appearances will take place with the Santa Barbara (CA) Symphony, Lubbock (TX) Symphony, and Delaware Symphony. Ms Koh appears in recital at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater with pianist Reiko Uchida, Supreme Court Recital series in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia Art Museum, the Ventura Music Festival, Pacific Symphony Orchestra (with pianist Ursula Oppens), and in chamber music performances at New York's 92^nd Street Y with Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Kim Kashkashian, and Zuill Baily.

Ms Koh has been chosen to present the Arison Award to Michael Tilson Thomas at the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts conference in Miami and will perform with him and the New World Symphony at this event.

During 2004-05 Ms. Koh toured Florida (Sarasota, Vero Beach, Orlando) with the New World Symphony as featured guest soloist and was heard as soloist with the San Diego Symphony under Jahja Ling, Singapore Symphony with Gerard Schwarz, at the Season Opener of Columbia University's Miller Theatre, Colonial Symphony in Morristown, NJ, Pensacola Symphony, Stamford Symphony; and New Philharmonic in Glen Ellyn, IL. Ms. Koh also performed in solo recital at New York City's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in chamber concert (with Jaime Laredo and Leon Fleisher) at the 92^nd St. Y, at the Curtis Institute Founders Day Concert in Philadelphia, at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, in Chicago in live recital at WMFT, and in San Francisco, Tokyo, Japan, and Seoul, Korea. Ms. Koh was also heard in a performance of Tan Dun's "Water Passion" conducted by the composer at New York's South Street Seaport as part of the River to River Festival.

Allan Kozinn of The New York Times gave a glowing review of Ms. Koh's recital at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art with pianist Reiko Uchida:

"In John Adams's "Road Movies" (1995) they easily met the work's immediate technical challenge - keeping the insistent rhythms vital and fresh - but they also found ways to make this sometimes motoric piece seem supple. Ms. Koh also offered a gripping performance of Eka-Pekka Salonen's "Lachen Verlernt" (2002), a piece that begins with a songlike simplicity but gradually becomes a study in full-throttle virtuosity. Between the Adams and the Salonen works, Ms. Koh and Ms. Uchida played Ravel's Sonata in G with a combination of Gallic sensuality and American flexibility. In the central Blues movement, Ms. Koh's bent pitches and throaty tone color were exactly what the score needs: Stephane Grappelli couldn't have made it sound more bluesy."

After her recital in early 2004 at New York's Town Hall, Jeremy Eichler of The New York Times praised Ms. Koh in the following terms:

Her (Ms. Koh's) playing was fiery and impassioned, most of all in Ysaye's Sonata No. 4, where she routinely pushed notes almost to their breaking point in a way that sent the pulse racing. The sonata was written in the early 20^th century, but in her hands it felt thrillingly modern.

Reviewing this recording in Gramophone magazine, Donald S. Rosenberg, senior critic of Cleveland's The Plain Dealer, wrote the following:

Koh plays each score with consummate assurance. She is a boldly expressive musician who is alert to harmonic implications and details. In the Bach, she applies finely buoyant rhythms to the dance forms before embarking on a probing account of the Ciaccona. There is ample warmth, as well as restraint when the music calls for reflective phrasing.

Ms. Koh's recordings of the Szymanowski and Martinu violin concertos is scheduled for release by Cedille during the spring of 2006. Another project with Cedille is a CD devoted to the complete Schumann Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Reiko Uchida, which is scheduled for release during the 2006-07 season.

Since the 1994-95 season, when she won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ms. Koh has been heard with leading orchestras and conductors around the world, including the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony (under Yakov Kreizberg,) the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit symphony, the New World Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, the Kyushu Orchestra of Japan, the Dortmund Philharmonic of Germany, Houston Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Iceland Symphony, Helsinki Symphony, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Radio Symphony, the Moscow State Academy Symphony Orchestra, and the Brandenburg Ensemble. In December 1999, Ms. Koh made her Carnegie Hall debut performing Mozart's Concerto in A Major (the "Turkish") with the New York String Orchestra under Jaime Laredo, a performance during which "Ms. Koh drew a lustrous tone from her fine Stradivari, yet kept her sound clear and focused," according to Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times.

A prolific recitalist, Miss Koh appears frequently at major music centers and festivals, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Mostly Mozart, Marlboro and Wolf Trap, and with Christoph Eschenbach at Ravinia and Schleswig-Holstein. She is heard annually at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where she recorded Menotti's Violin Concerto live in concert with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox.

A committed educator, Ms. Koh has also won high praise for her performances in classrooms around the country under her Innovative Music Messenger outreach program. Now in its third year, the program continues to form an important part of her musical activities. "The majority of children in this country have not been given the opportunity to learn music as a form of self-expression," she asserts, "and I want to share this experience of making and listening to music with them." Ms. Koh's outreach efforts have taken her to classrooms all over the country to perform challenging music - whether it be Bach, Paganini, or Bartok - for thousands of students who have little opportunity to hear classical music in their daily lives. "Music is a positive outlet for emotions and is much more creative and constructive than spending hours in a shopping mall," she adds. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Foundation for the Advancement for the Arts, a scholarship program for high school students in the arts.

David Bilger, Trumpet

As a soloist, Mr. Bilger has appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Sapporo (Japan) Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Richmond Symphony, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and others. His solo appearances with The Philadelphia Orchestra include performances of the Tomasi Trumpet Concerto at Carnegie Hall, and on tour in North and South America in 1998; Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in February 2003; Copland's Quiet City in October 2004; and Bloch's Proclamation in 2006. In 2008 he is scheduled to perform the US premiere of Herbert Willi's trumpet concerto entitled Eirene (Greek for "Peace") with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Bilger has performed recitals in New York, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other major American cities.

Mr. Bilger has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with which he recorded Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto. Other chamber music appearances include Chamber Music Northwest, the New York Trumpet Ensemble, Saint Luke's Chamber Ensemble, as well as guest appearances with the Canadian Brass and the Empire Brass. He recently released a recording of new electro-acoustic music for trumpet and synthesizers with composer Meg Bowles.

Mr. Bilger is currently on the music faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and Temple University, and he has formerly been affiliated with Swarthmore College, Catholic University, Rice University, and the University of North Texas. He has performed master classes at dozens of institutions, including the Juilliard School of Music, Indiana University, the University of Michigan, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Peabody Conservatory. He has also taught at the Pacific Music Festival and the National Orchestral Institute.

Mr. Bilger was educated at the Juilliard School of Music and the University of Illinois. He and his wife, Cynthia, have three children, Emily, Richard, and Abraham.