The twin pulls of commerce and creativity often appear in conflict in the career of an artist. Violinist Jennifer Koh, 30, has developed a philosophical approach to resolving that tension, one that treats commercial decisions as part of the artistic process.

"Artists make choices," she said. "All I hope is that the music I find compelling, other people will find it compelling as well."

Audiences can judge for themselves when Koh makes her first visit to San Joaquin County to perform Brahms' Violin Concerto in D major with the Stockton Symphony. The program opens with the overture to Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" and also includes Copland's "Billy the Kid" suite. Peter Jaffe conducts.

Written in 1878, the violin concerto's three movements sound incredibly unbalanced at first listen. The huge first movement lasts more than 20 minutes, but it's followed by two movements in the eight-minute range. For Koh, this structure works as a metaphor of human consciousness and interaction.

"The first movement is really a journey," she said. "It makes me think of a person's life in the sense of how one reaches the idea of consciousness."

According to Koh, the second movement's intermingling of the violin solo with the movement's famous oboe solo hints at the idea of discovery of another human being, one that leads to a joyous final movement.

"Everything is just crafted so perfectly," Koh said.

The artistic background of the Brahms concerto also reflects Koh's ideals of artistic interaction and focus. Brahms participated in a close-knit circle of musicians that included composers Robert and Clara Schumann and violinist Joseph Joachim (who premiered the concerto in 1879); Koh finds her repeated connections with contemporary composers equally stimulating.

"I just premiered this new concerto written for me by Jennifer Higdon," Koh said. "And last year, I premiered a violin sonata she'd written for me."

Koh said she treats collaborations with new composers as "conversations," similar to how she feels about her extended engagements with the music of earlier composers, such as Brahms.

Indeed, her performance of Brahms' concerto offers an opportunity to revisit the work she played in 1994 to win the vaunted Tchaikovsky Competition. Lately, she's also been revisiting all of Brahms' sonatas for violin and piano, and she revels in what she's discovering about that composer as well as her own musical sensibility.

"I've begun to see music as a continuously living process," Koh said. "How you play a piece today is going to be different in a year, even tomorrow, and certainly in 10 years or five years."

Undergraduate degrees in music and literature from Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio laid a solid foundation for training at the prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Frequent performances in recital and with orchestras across the world have followed. (She just returned from a short tour of Israel.)

After her 2005 album devoted to 20th century violin concertos from Central Europe, Koh's next project shifted gears dramatically and focused on the intimacy of Schumann's violin sonatas. Her next CD, due later this month, continues her artistic eclecticism with a program featuring pieces written during her lifetime. Well, mostly during her lifetime.

"I found this amazing piece written by Carl Ruggles that wasn't composed during my lifetime," she said. "I didn't mind that I put that one in."

Contact reporter Glenn Pillsbury at features@recordnet.com.