Karl Georg Kohn (born August 1, 1926) is an Austrian-born American composer, teacher and pianist. He taught at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...

for more than 40 years.

Biography

Kohn began playing the piano as a child in Vienna; after he emigrated to the United States at the age of 13, he continued his education at the New York College of Music (1940–1944) and at Harvard (B.A., M.A.) where he studied composition with Walter Piston, Irving Fine, and

Randall Thompson Randall Thompson (April 21, 1899 – July 9, 1984) was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works. Career Randall attended The Lawrenceville School, where his father was an English teacher. He then attended Harvard University, ...

. He is W. M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at

, where he taught for over forty years. His students at Pomona included Douglas Leedy,

David Noon David Noon (born 23 July 1946) is a contemporary classical composer and educator. He has written over 200 works from opera to chamber music. Noon's composition teachers have included Karl Kohn, Darius Milhaud, Charles Jones, Yehudi Wyner, Mar ...

and Susan Morton Blaustein as well as, privately,

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of ...

and John McGuire. With his wife, Margaret Kohn, he has had a long career as a duo-pianist in the United States and in Europe, with a repertoire focused on major 20th century works by Debussy, Bartók, Berio, Stravinsky, Messiaen, Ligeti, Reich, and Boulez. Kohn played in the US premier of Boulez's ''Structures'' together with the composer. Kohn's own works have been performed by the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

and

Buffalo Philharmonic The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra located in Buffalo, New York led by Music Director JoAnn Faletta. Its primary performing venue is Kleinhans Music Hall, which is a National Historic Landmark. Each season it p ...

Orchestras, the

Oakland Symphony The Oakland Symphony Orchestra Association (OSOA) was a professional regional symphony orchestra in Oakland, California, from 1933 to 1986. In 1986 the symphony filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It is succeeded by the Oakland East Bay Symphony (OEBS ...

, the

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) is a full-time professional chamber orchestra based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In collaboration with five Artistic Partners, the orchestra's musicians present more than 130 concerts and educational programs ea ...

, on the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San F ...

's Musica Viva series, at the

Monday Evening Concerts Founded in 1939 by Peter Yates and Frances Mullen in their modest Rudolf Schindler-designed Silverlake home, Monday Evening Concerts (MEC) is the world's longest-running series devoted to contemporary music. Originally envisioned as a forum for ...

in Los Angeles (Kohn served for two decades on the board of directors of the Monday Evening Concerts), and in concerts and broadcasts throughout the United States and abroad.

Compositions

Kohn has composed in all major genres of concert music. His work uses a unique collage-like style, in which individual instruments or groups of instruments project themselves from the surrounding events. His music cannot easily be immediately identified as either European or American in character, as it uses both the resources of his deep engagement in the European classical traditional as well as a more empirical approach to his materials. Karl Kohn's principal publishers are Carl Fischer Music, New York, GunMar Music, Inc., (from Shawnee Press, Delaware Water Gap, PA), Edition Contemp Art, Vienna, and Material Press, Frankfurt am Main.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohn, Karl 1926 births Living people 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers Harvard University alumni New York College of Music alumni Pupils of Walter Piston 21st-century American composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians Pomona College faculty Austrian emigrants to the United States