Press and Reviews

Opera Review: “HER | alive.un.dead” — The Sacrifices We Make in the Name of Love By Aaron Keebaugh HER | alive.un.dead proves that some stories are best told by trusting the audience’s imagination. Even the most turbulent operas are usually set right when everyone...

Her | alive.un.dead by Christopher Hodges Emily Koh managed to thread the needle of relatable story and intense acting in her opera Her | alive.un.dead, which Guerilla Opera premiered this past weekend at the Pao Arts Center. The production told the powerful story of...

Opera premiere in Boston's Chinatown explores family and the ‘other world’ By Jeremy Siegel May 12, 2023 Morning Edition Your idea of opera is about to get turned on its head this weekend at the Pao Arts Center in Chinatown. A new show called HER | alive.un.dead is a...

Emily Koh’s HER | alive.un.dead will run from May 12th to May 14th in Guerilla  Opera’s world premiere production at Pao Arts Center. The concert-length media opera concerns itself with three generations of Asian women in a single family. The opera focuses on the...

Two classical music ensembles invest in a digital future By Lauren Williams It happened quickly. Within days of the slow roll of lockdown ordinances, it seemed the entire world moved online. Universities, non-emergency healthcare practitioners and large corporations...

Greater Boston is home to a diverse Asian American Pacific Islander community, whose heritages contribute to the area’s rich cultural tapestry. May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and local organizations and cultural leaders are coming together...

From orchestras to Marvel movies, composers have been scoring the soundtracks to our favourite tunes, television programmes, and movies since the dawn of music. In its most fundamental definition, a composer is someone who writes music, either through crafting a...

From Singapore, "Distancing Etude" by Hoh Chung Shih is a work that expresses the social conditions during the Covid-19 pandemi; "smidgen(S) by Emily Koh, a short musical on spices in the composer's kitchen; and "Petals in the Sun" by Elliot Teo, which is inspired by...

Singapore will be presenting Distancing Etude by Hoh Chung Shih (a work that expresses the social conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic), smidgen(S) by Emily Koh (a short musical on spices in the composer's kitchen) and Petals in the Sun by Elliot Teo (inspired by a...

The concert opened with veteran composer Emily Koh’s chronoma, a combination of the Greek roots chroma (colour) and chronos (time). Influenced by Koh’s time studying Balinese gamelan in Indonesia, combinations of multiple melodies and rhythmic patterns underscored...

Emerging composer Lee Jia Yi, 25, wrote a commissioned piece, Emanate, for the concert. The work was part of Unheard's inaugural mentorship programme, the only one solely for female composers here. She was mentored by Koh, who is assistant professor of music...

Compositions by Emily Koh are interpreted by Philipp Staudlin, Noa Even, and the four reed New Thread Quartet. The emphasis is on finding out various ranges that the reeds can arrive at, as "Meditation" has Staudlin going into the subbest of subtones while Even's...

Five pieces by this Atlanta-based composer: two for solo saxophone (baritone and soprano) and three for saxophone quartet, performed here by the New Thread Quartet. Koh's music typically explores the intricacies and details of sound, and these pieces can be...

CRITIC'S CHOICES: 4. STRINGS & HAMMERS, THE MCCORMIC [sic] PERCUSSION GROUP. RAVELLO. ★★★ "The McCormick Percussion Group and violinist Sini Virtanen’s Strings and Hammers trio received a Gold Medal for their collaborative album in the New Classical Music category...

"By contrast, the ritualist sounds pregnant with meaning in Memento mori by Emily Koh demand the listener's immersion in - rather than cogitation of - a shimmering, modern version of an ancient lament."

"\very/ specifically vague shifts to linguistic terrain, as Singaporean composer Emily Koh creates a musical analogue to Singlish, Singapore's English-based creole. The tile, describing Singlish's characteristic roundabout quality, is borrowed from a Reddit forum."

"Memento Mori by Emily Koh is a piece for violin, double bass, and percussion quintet. According to the composer, the violin and bass were conceived as a single instrument that she refers to as the "superbass." The piece starts out with a taiko-inspired opening played...

"The third composition is Koh's "Memento Mori", which features Keller and Virtanen. Koh is from Singapore and is a double bassist who teaches at the University of Georgia in Athens as an Assistant Professor of music composition."

"Memento Mori (a reminder of one's mortality) by Emily Koh begins with ominous rumblings in the percussion, followed by the lowest notes of the double-bass, which is cleverly combined with the violin to create one "super" instrument. This seems to open up a cavernous...

Global Music Awards Gold Medal Winner New Classical Music - Album Strings & Hammers

"Emily Koh's \Very/ Specifically Vaugue is inspired by from [sic] Singaporean English patois, Advocat's precise trills and the occasional upward flare contrasting with Sharrock's anchoring accents and ripples. "

Best Album of New Music- PRISM Quartet; Surfaces and Essences  

"The inventive compositions range from the austerely lyrical title track, by Stefanie Lubkowski, to the dancing, start-stop motion of Emily Koh's "\very/ specifically vague."

"Koh's "reitario'" (the composer's own neologism) opened the concert. This brief, four-minute work is quiet, still music which gradually builds in speed and complexity. The ponderous solemnity is enlivened by a flurry of grace notes -- combined with Longendyke's...

Read the full review of the concert here, by Dr Chang Tou Liang! "Works for larger ensemble with a more modern persuasion occupied the concert’s second half. Emily Koh’s Resonate was originally conceived for Chinese ensemble and western wind ensemble to represent a...

"The collection also includes the haltingly conversational \very/ specifically vague by Emily Koh; Clifton Ingram's multipart Cold Column Calving; and Crystal Paccuci's emotionally charged resonance imaging. Advocat and Sharrock's performances on all seven works...

"A modern clarinet/percussion duo that actively commissions new works and premieres them, they seem to favor works that feel influenced by 50s Bernstein with their flow moving forward from there. This program is full of progressive hotspots showing just how much white...

"Singaporean composer Emily Koh's synpunkt (2013) for flute, clarinet and percussion commences with key clicks and short breathy notes in the winds, punctuated by dry strikes on suspended cymbal, gradually building into a spirited dialog between the contrasting...

"About 180 guests, including 18 Cultural Medallion recipients, were present at the ceremony, which also honoured five arts practitioners under the age of 35 with the Young Artist Award. They were visual artists Weixin Quek Chong, 31; lighting designer Gabriel Chan,...

"Currently based in Georgia, the United States, where she is assistant professor of composition at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, University of Georgia, Koh graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and did her postgraduate studies at the Peabody...

"The choir's performance for the second half of the concert was noticeably more settled and less tentative compared to the first half, opening with the world premiere of Emily Koh's Homemade Recipe: Char Kuay. I found the performance reminiscent of my attempts in...

"For cello and prepared piano, Emily Koh's piquant and colourful smidgen(s) explores five different spices, each in a separate movement. Yummy!"

"Emily Koh's trans-[migra].nation (2011) honors the late Steven Baxter, onetime dean and director of Peabody Conservatory and its Singaporean sister school Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, both of which Koh attended. The 11-minute octet offered the evening's most expansive...

"Thus, during the first half of the program, Koh's "am burning, have burned, will burn" served as a "response" to Caccini's "Ch'amor sia nudo" (that love is naked). The result was a pair of complementary takes on Cupid with sharply contrasting rhetorical stances."

"Next was Emily Koh's Bridging Isolation (2013) for clarinet, violin and piano. The clarinet introduced with a bright opening. At times listeners could hear random vocal calls from the clarinet that echoed Olivier Messiaen's birdsong quotations. The work is slightly...

"Her musical inspirations are wide and varied. She is especially attracted to uniquely human things: language, philosophy, sensory details (food, visual art, experiences etc.) Her music definitely reflects this variety of influences. I was initially drawn to Synpunkt...

"Emily Koh's brilliant \very/ specifically vague (2017) promises a depiction of roundabout conversation -- and trading snippets of material, the duo maintained a dialogue that grew heated at moments but remained productive."

“More than 170 GSAS students will be honored at Commencement,” says Eric Chasalow, Dean of GSAS, “and we are delighted that Dr. Koh will represent the school during their final event before becoming Brandeis GSAS alumni. In my three yearsa s dean, I have been extremely impressed with the intelligence and accomplishment of our graduating students, and while I am a bit prejudiced since I helped advise Emily, she certainly rises to that level of excellence.”

My work is generally introspective. It contemplates difficult questions on what it means to be a human being.

On Saturday, February 4 at 8:00 at SPACES Gallery, No Exit will present the world premiere of Emily Koh’s esphyr; performed by violinist Cara Tweed, pianist Nicholas Underhill, and percussionist Luke Rinderknecht.

“本场音乐会分上下半场，各三首作品，涵盖了日本作曲家长生淳的《天顶之恋》、皮耶佐拉的《探戈组曲第二乐章》、许佩珊的《经文歌》和梁雷的《湖》等中外名家作品。”