The Kennedy Center Appoints New Chamber Series Artistic Director 

Violinist Jennifer Koh will oversee the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, effective immediately until Spring 2026

American violinist Jennifer Koh’s first full season as artistic director of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will be the 2024/25 concert season. She succeeds the late Joseph “Yossi” Kalichstein, who passed away in March 2022, and held the role since 1997.

The 2022/23 season marks the 40th edition of the Fortas chamber music series — founded during the 1980s. Throughout its history, the series has featured the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, Takács, and Alban Berg Quartets; early music ensembles Anonymous 4, Trio Medieval, and the Waverly Consort; and artists Eugene Istomin, Emanuel Ax, Edgar Meyer, Susan Graham, Isaac Stern, and Yo-Yo Ma.

“We welcome Jenny with open arms to the Kennedy Center,” said The Kennedy Center’s president Deborah Rutter. “Her artistic voice is distinctive and her presence here will build on the incredible legacy and strength Yossi had built over the 25 seasons he oversaw Fortas. I have no doubt Jenny will push us forward in her artistic vision here at the Center.”

“Jenny is steeped in the traditional canon, while active in contemporary classical music as well,” added Kevin Struthers, director of programming for Jazz, Chamber, and Classical New Music. “We are thrilled that she will bring her unique curatorial eye and profound musical talent to our stages.”

“I am honored to be appointed…The chance to advocate for the most compelling artists of today continues the tradition and spirit of collaboration that I have learned through my own musical collaborations with Yossi Kalichstein,” Koh said. “I look forward to incorporating the musical traditions from his previous leadership.

“I’m especially moved to be able to work and be part of the Kennedy Center family, as my parents were able to come here and become citizens and I was able to be born in America as a result of JFK’s philosophies,” Koh added. “It’s especially exciting to me to be able to program living composers in order to expand upon the living monument of The Kennedy Center.”

A GRAMMY Award-winning violinist, Koh champions living composers and is an advocate for marginalized communities in the classical music industry. Her recent projects include the album “Alone Together,” made during the COVID-19 pandemic, and premiering composer Lisa Bielawa’s Violin Concerto at Carnegie Hall.

Making her debut at age 11 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she later won top prizes at Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition — plus earned an Avery Fisher Career Grant. A graduate of the Curtis Institute studying with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir, Koh also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin College.