Jennifer Koh’s original title for the Music on Main program she’ll present next week, Folie à Deux, just wasn’t cutting it. The term, which refers to a kind of mutual psychosis, captures the intensity of the music the acclaimed violinist will perform, but has an undertone of violence that wasn’t sitting well with her. So she’s switched the title to Shared Madness. Yes, it’s mad to present 17 brand-new compositions for solo violin in a single night, but that the undertaking is a shared endeavour makes it far more doable.

The new title might refer to the intense relationship that Koh shares with her instrument, which she refers to as “my voice”. Or it might refer to the contract Koh signed with philanthropists Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, who loaned Koh the money to buy that violin, a vintage treasure worth more than any classical musician could earn in his or her lifetime. Remarkably, her patrons didn’t ask for repayment in cash, but in premieres—a task shared by Koh’s composer friends, who gladly stepped up to advance her cause.

“I called everybody in a very short time span, and I ended up with over 30 pieces,” the violinist relates in a telephone interview from her New York City home. “I really didn’t expect that kind of generosity. Basically, everybody that I called said yes. It was unbelievable to me, that sense of community, that sense of generosity, their willingness to help. Even now, it makes me choke up when I think about it. So I really feel like this project is testament to the generosity of the artistic community that I’m a part of.”

Koh sees the Shared Madness collection—which includes works from living legends such as Philip Glass and Kaija Saariaho, from respected midcareer artists Julia Wolfe and David Lang, and from relative newcomers like the National’s Bryce Dessner—as the 21st-century equivalent to Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, a set of brutally difficult extravagances that were for two centuries the last word in virtuosity.

“What do you think is virtuosity now?” was the question she asked her volunteer composers. “And a lot of them actually said, ‘Well, everybody can play fingered octaves. Obviously, you can play fingered thirds, you can jump around the instrument, you can play fast. Those are things that maybe in the 1800s not every violinist could do, but Paganini could,’ ” Koh explains. “So for some of them, of course, it is about interacting with the past, in the form of Paganini’s Caprices. But for a lot of them, the most challenging thing is how one phrases, so their pieces are going to be all about phrasing. For other composers, it was about stillness and quietness. With others, it was about extended technique. So all of them really do explore different aspects of the violin.”

What Koh will share with the audience, then, is a survey of what her instrument is capable of in the hands of a modern-day virtuoso. And the sharing might even extend to the future; there’s a good chance that these works will be used in violin pedagogy as often as Paganini’s were during Koh’s childhood.

“I hope so!” the virtuoso enthuses. “I kind of feel like that’s my duty in life, to create an environment in which people can explore their curiosity through these different works. That’s very important to me.”

Music on Main presents Shared Madness with Jennifer Koh at the Fox Cabaret on Tuesday (April 9).