New Music Written Expressly For The Pandemic

Violinist Jennifer Koh has been commissioning more than 40 pieces for herself to play unaccompanied on her weekly Facebook Live show. So are other musicians and organizations, from the New Jersey Symphony to the Guggenheim. “Taken together,” writs David Patrick Stearns, “these direct artistic responses are the classical soundscape of the pandemic. The keep-your-spirits-up message that circulated early on in the classical music community has given way to something darker.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer