BACK AT RICHARDSON: Violinist Alexi Kenney returns to Princeton with “Shifting Ground,” presented by Princeton University Concerts at Richardson Auditorium on February 16.

Young violinist Alexi Kenney has appeared at Princeton University Concerts’ (PUC) Performances Up Close, Healing with Music, and Live Music Meditation series over the past two years. The 28-year-old returns to Richardson Auditorium on Thursday, February 16 at 7:30 p.m.

On the program, titled “Shifting Ground,” are works by J.S. Bach alongside pieces for solo violin and violin/electronics by composers of our time, including pieces by Samuel Adams, Du Yun, and Paul Wiancko, and new commissions by Salina Fisher and Angélica Negrón. Jane Cox, Tony Award-nominated lighting designer, director of the Program in Theater at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, will design the lighting for this program.

“My hope is that through the course of the program each piece enlivens those around it, framing Bach in a new light and placing contemporary violin works in context — and showing that art need not be defined by era to express our shared humanity,” said Kenney.

As part of his time at Princeton, Kenney will also visit Trenton Public Schools with Trenton Arts at Princeton to work with high school music students in grades 10-12, as part of PUC’s Neighborhood Music Project. He will perform for and rehearse with students, as well as facilitate discussions around music.

“Contextualizing classical composers within our time is such an important contribution to the art of chamber music,” said PUC Director Marna Seltzer. “This contribution, which Alexi Kenney contemplates so thoughtfully with this program, is a vital part of PUC’s overarching mission to bring people together through the timelessness of live music and highlight its integral presence in our contemporary world. It has been wonderful to see several artists on our series take that approach by centering programs around a single composer, including pianist Víkingur Olafsson’s Mozart-centric program in the fall, and an all-Vivaldi program by the Jupiter Ensemble this spring. 19th-century composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov once said that ‘all modern music owes everything to J. S. Bach.’ I can’t think of a better musician than Alexi to show us just how true that is.”

Tickets ($25-40 General/$10 Student) are available at puc.princeton.edu or by calling (609) 258-9220.