Limitless

Violinist Jennifer Kohs Limitless, based on her groundbreaking recital project of the same name, bridges the modern divide between composer and instrumentalist, celebrates artistic collaboration, and revives the grand tradition of composers performing their own music. The album features world-premiere recordings of Koh-commissioned duets by a diverse roster of highly accomplished contemporary composers, which she performs with the composers themselves. Premieres include Quasim Naqvis The Banquet for violin and modular synthesizer, exploring a convergence between acoustic string and electronic sound worlds; Lisa Bielawas Sanctuary Songs for violin and voice, three settings of texts by American women poets of the 1920s; Du Yuns give me back my fingerprints for violin and voice, representative of what The New York Times calls her adventurously eclectic style; and Tyshawn Soreys In Memoriam Muhal Richard Abrams, dedicated to Soreys beloved mentor, the avant-garde pianist, composer, and founding president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Limitless also offers the first recording of Nina C. Youngs Sun Propeller for violin and electronics, inspired by traditional Tuvan throat-singing; Wang Lus Her Latitude for violin and electronics, with a quasi-improvised piano part and electronically processed sounds of Buddhist chants and old Korean pop songs; and jazz luminary Vijay Iyers The Diamond for violin and piano, inspired by an early Buddhist text. The album concludes with Missy Mazzolis A Thousand Tongues for violin, piano, and electronics, an intense response to a line in a Stephen Crane poem; and Vespers for violin and electronics, deliciously disorienting (National Public Radio) with a soaring solo violin.