Jonathan Kolm

Biography

A rising American composer, Jonathan Kolm’s works have been heard around the country and abroad. His music combines rhythmic intensity, haunting lyricism and rich harmonic colors and has been recognized with many awards and prizes in national competitions.

He is the winner of the 2010-2011 Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association Composition Competition and will have several orchestral works performed during their 2011-2012 season. He is the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Craig and Janet Swan Composition prize from the University of Minnesota for his orchestral work Prophecies which was premiered in Minneapolis conducted by Mark Russell Smith. Notice of this prize and performance was carried in the print edition of the USA Today on December 7th, 2009 and was also mentioned by the Associated Press. His work Terra Secundum was premiered in 2009 by the new music ensemble IonSound and hailed for being "fluent in its diversity" (Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Classical Music Critic, 12/21/09). A review of his music was the subject of a July 2009 entry on the widely read Chamber Music Today blog. Concerning his award winning chamber piece Quantum Music, the author stated "The textures are interesting throughout, and the narrative arc is accessible and deeply moving." In 2008 he participated in the VocalEssence/American Composers Forum workshop for new choral music, working with composer Daniel Godfrey, artistic director Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence. 2007 saw the premiere of several commissioned works as well as winning first place in the Austin Peay State Composition Competition for A Dream within a Dream.

During his time earning a DMA in composition from the University of Texas at Austin, his choral work Winter Heavens was premiered in October 2005 in New York City by the New York Virtuoso Singers under Harold Rosenbaum and he was a Symposium Fellow at MUSIC05 in Cincinnati where his piece for three percussionists on one vibraphone Warrior from the Deep was premiered. Crystal Fantasy, for violin, cello, flute, and clarinet was performed at the Dallas Museum of Art where it won second place in the 2005 Voices of Change Composition Contest. In 2006 a large-scale cantata for choir and orchestra was commissioned and premiered in April, 2006 in Austin, Texas. His chamber piece Mere Mirrors has been performed numerous times in the US and the UK. His work for SATB chorus Cedo Maiori was premiered in October 2006 in New York City by the New York Virtuoso Singers at Columbia University.

Before moving to Texas, he earned a Bachelor of Music in piano performance in 1999 and his Master of Music in composition in 2000, both from Virginia Commonwealth University. Compositional highlights include winning second place in the 2001 Percussive Arts Society Composition Competition, third place in the 2002 National Federation of Music Clubs Competition for Young Composers as well as the 2002 Nancy and Russel Hatz Special Recognition Award. He has had his music published by Honeyrock Publishing and has written music for film and theater. Films that he has scored have been screened at prestigious film festivals in the United States and abroad, including Brazil, Denmark, France, and the UK.

He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia and is the head of the composition and piano program. Also active as a researcher in other fields, he writes and lectures on the intersection of American history, foreign policy and energy issues and is an avid gardener.