Kenneth
T. Kosche is currently Professor of Music at Concordia University
Wisconsin (Mequon, WI) where he directs the Concordia Chorale
(chapel choir) and Kammerchor (touring choir), serves as
director of the parish music program, and teaches conducting,
choral literature, and composing/arranging to undergrads
and in the Masters in Church Music degree program. A native
Chicagoan, Kosche earned his B.S. in Music Education and
M. S. degrees at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana)
and D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington
(Seattle). A teacher for nearing forty years, he taught first
in public schools in Illinois before moving to Seattle for
doctoral study. After a year teaching at the University of
Wisconsin - La Crosse, he accepted his present position at
CUW in 1978. His colleagues at CUW honored him with the Faculty
Laureate in 1999.
A
parish musician at heart, Kosche has held minister of music
positions in Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin, serving
various combinations as organist, choral director, and worship
planner. From 1979 through 1988 he directed the Lutheran
A Cappella Choir of Milwaukee, relinquishing that role to
devote more time to a then-growing family. His wife Rosemary
(nee Harjes) and he are parents of Thomas (serving
as a Lutheran Jr/Sr high school teacher in Reseda, CA) and
Anne (Hispanic ministry, deaconess program, CTS, Ft. Wayne
- interning in the Dominican Republic).
Kosche
was a 1990 Fellow in the Melodious Accord Program, studying
in New York with Alice Parker, subsequently going back to
NY and MA on several occasions for further coaching and study.
God has blessed his creative activities with the success
of having over 250 compositions for voices, organ, handbells,
and instruments published by 15 publishers to date. Choir
tours with Concordia University's Kammerchor have taken him
to all parts of the US, Canada, Great Britain, Taiwan, Brazil,
Shanghai, and Hong Kong. He has adjudicated contests,
given workshops and reading sessions in several states, in
Brazil and Taiwan. He conducted the conference choir in a
performance of Handel's Messiah at the biennial
convention of the WACCM in Taipei in June, 2002.
As
a composer, he believes that melody is the wellspring of
composition; that careful attention must be paid to the setting
of texts both as to affect and accent; and that children
and adults need quality music to sing and play in schools
and churches with limited resources as well as for those
who have large choirs, organs, handbell and instrumental
ensembles. Above all, he is grateful that music he has written
and arranged may serve to the glory of God as a vehicle for
sharing the living voice of the Gospel.
Choral
music by Kenneth Kosche
Organ
music by Kenneth Kosche
