Jennifer Koh, violin Vijay Iyer, piano Union College

Sunday, October 18, 2026 - 3:00 PM

Our fall season at Union College begins with a special collaboration by an American new music icon and the MacArthur-winning composer and jazz pianist. The dynamic duo performs solo works preceding the NY premiere of our co-commission of Iyer reflecting upon peoples’ lives today.

Program:
- Bach: Solo Violin Work TBD
- Iyer: Music from Scenes of Living and Dying: Part 1 (co-commission)
- Iyer: Solo Piano Work TBD
- Iyer: Music from Scenes of Living and Dying: Part 2 (co-commission)

RUNTIME: 2 HOURS

Union College
Memorial Chapel
Schenectady, NY

General Admission seating — doors open 45 minutes before concert.

All kids and college students admitted free at door.

Ticket information and policies

Jennifer Koh

Recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance, Grammy Award-winning violinist Jennifer Koh is a forward-thinking artist dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire. She has expanded the contemporary violin repertoire through a wide range of commissioning projects, premiering more than 100 works written specifically for her. Her quest for the new and unusual, her insatiable curiosity, and her ability to lead and inspire a diverse range of multidisciplinary collaborators distinguish her as one of the most dynamic classical musicians today.

Koh is Artistic Director of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts at the Kennedy Center, where she oversees the full concert season and emphasizes the evolution of classical music and the commissioning of new works. Her commissioning projects include Alone Together, Bach and Beyond, Bridge to Beethoven, Limitless, and Shared Madness. The Grammy Award-winning Alone Together—launched in 2020—was developed in response to the coronavirus pandemic and brought composers together in support of freelancers; Cedille Records released an album of Alone Together in 2021 that won the Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. For further information, visit jenniferkoh.com.

Vijay Iyer

Described by The New York Times as a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway," Vijay Iyer has carved out a unique path as an influential, prolific, shape-shifting presence in twenty-first-century music. A composer and pianist active across multiple musical communities, Iyer has created a consistently innovative, emotionally resonant body of work over the last three decades.

His honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, three Grammy nominations, the Alpert Award in the Arts, the Greenfield Prize, a Dutch Edison Prize, and two German Echo awards; he was also voted DownBeat Magazine's Jazz Artist of the Year four times. Iyer's musical language draws on composer-pianists from Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk to Alice Coltrane and Geri Allen, rhythmic traditions of South Asia and West Africa, and the African American creative music movement of the 60s and 70s. He has released twenty-eight albums. Iyer is a tenured professor at Harvard University, a Steinway artist, and lives in New York City.