It's fair to say that Jennifer Koh has Beethoven on the brain. "I'm thinking about music all the time — practically every moment," said the virtuoso violinist in a recent interview. "Even now, it's playing in the background [of my brain]."
Nevertheless, she hadn’t stopped to consider the enormous role the brain plays in music-making, controlling everything from memorization to motor skills. That changed abruptly one night during the summer of 2014, when, following an accident, she landed facedown onto a piece of New York City pavement.
Koh didn't realize it at first, but she had suffered a serious concussion. It was four or five weeks before she had the cognitive power to truly understand what was happening to her, and four months before she could resume her concert career. She spent two of those months in a dark room, forbidden from reading or playing music — a period of "cognitive rest" during which her brain gradually healed itself.