(1959)
Michael Kosch studied music composition with Dennis Kam at the University of Miami,
Florida, and with composers Ben Johnston, Salvatore Martirano, and Morgan Powell at the
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He has written operas, orchestra works, chamber
music, and solo pieces, and has collaborated with his wife, choreographer Rachael Kosch, on
many music/dance/theater productions.
Recent performances of Michael Kosch’s music include the October 2022 premiere of
Sassetta VIII for viola and cello by the Italian cellist Pietro Bosna and violist Elisa Ardinghi at
the 1000-year-old Oratorio of Santa Croce, Cervarese, Italy; the April 2023 performance of
“Coronach” from Celtic Springs for five unspecified instruments by the University of Northern
Iowa New Music Ensemble; the May 2023 on-line premiere of the oboe solo Holbein’s Lines by
oboist Ava Wirth; the March 2023 on-line premiere of The Coast of Kerry for voice and French
horn (one player) by folk singer/French horn virtuoso Mary Beth Orr (the latter two debuts part
of the Vox Novus “Fifteen Minutes of Fame” project). In August 2023 the Classic Strings Duo–
Kevin Matheson, violin; Bryan Matheson, viola–released the premiere recordings on YouTube
of Kosch’s Duccio I and Duccio V for violin/viola duet.
Kosch’s music also has been played by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Kronos
Quartet, Zeitgeist, the Northstar Brass Quintet, the Unstücke Ensemble, violin soloists Yibin Li,
Julie Lawrence, and Muneyoshi Takahashi, and solo pianists Chung-Hsi Hsieh, Michael Scales,
and Sohyun Ahn. Two parts of his four-part string quartet cycle Strokes of Sky, “Paris” and
“Saint-Rémy”, inspired by the life and works of Vincent van Gogh, have been premiered by the
Iris String Quartet. His saxophone quartet, Castle in the Air, debuted in December 2016 in a
performance by the Area 9 Quartet. Circus Work, a ballet with a score by Michael Kosch,
choreographed by Rachael Kosch, premiered at the Metropolitan Playhouse in New York in July
2017.
He has been awarded fellowships and grants from the Bush Foundation, Rockefeller
Foundation/Intermedia Arts, McKnight Foundation, Meet the Composer, the American
Composers Forum, and ASCAP, and has been commissioned by the Area 9 Saxophone Quartet,
the Metropolitan Playhouse, the Maëlstrom Percussion Ensemble, the American Dance Festival,
the Bach Society Chorus, and the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studio.
His recent music draws inspiration from visual art: in April 2019, solo violist Junah
Chung premiered Cimabue IV , based on the work of late-medieval Florentine artist Cenni di
Pepi, known as “Cimabue”; in January 2019, violist Gregory Williams and cellist Diane Golden
debuted Sassetta III & IV, inspired by paintings of the Renaissance Sienese master Stefano di
Giovanni, called “Sassetta”; and in December 2018 violinist Yibin Li premiered Giotto I, based
on the Scrovegni Chapel “Nativity” fresco by the Florentine master Giotto di Bondone.
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