Post-Genre Composition

Since 2019 I have been researching and organising ways to mix contemporary classical/jazz notational aspects with varied genres of music in the form of Song. My research has been funded by various institutions and organisations. Artistic Konzept: opening up the expressive power of classical/new music by broadening its environment to diverse influences, people, and venues […]

Update: Professorship and a rad little scrolling score video!

Hey, I am proud to announce that I will begin teaching as an adjunct-professor at the Hamburger Konservatorium beginning in October 2019. There I will be taking on musicianship courses and focussing my teaching on aural skills/harmony. On an unrelated note: Here is a nice little scrolling score video for all those that want to […]

“Future of Orchestral Culture” in the Hamburg Resonanzraum

A years long collaboration with the BKM and the Future of Orchestra Culture Program in Hamburg has ended with this fantastic interdisciplinary concert. Concert trailer of the interdisciplinary evening curated by the F.O.C. scholarship recipients: Full concert video of my composition, “aware” for clarinet and small orchestra. This piece was re-composed to be used as […]

New Recording of “the sea is near me.”

I am so happy to share Jorge Paz’s recording of “the sea is near me.”  This composition is one of those rare works whose conception was entirely filled with simplistic  joy. A pensive manifestation of childhood nostalgia, this piece reimagines the beaches and cliffs of Emerald Cove (Palos Verdes) and displays a sense of childlike […]

Elbphilharmonie concert

It brings me great joy to finally share this work. Written in a haze of only 11 days, this work represents a stream-of-concious musical aesthetic loosely based upon the influence of J.S. Bach.  Unedited, emotional, sometimes banal, and extremely nostalgic, I intend for this work to directly represent my experiences in the ICU after the birth […]

Premiere in Elbphilharmonie

The premiere of Köster’s “Memory Fragments III (im Eifer etwas übersehen)” was commissioned by the Lux Nova Duo, who played the piece to a sold out audience at their “Auf den Spuren Johann Sebastian Bachs” concert, in honor of Bach’s 333rd birthday. An especially noteworthy piece on the program was Charles Uzor’s “Sephardic Lilt”, inspired […]

TBA: Portrait Concert, 2019

Koester is currently working with the HfMT Hamburg on a Portrait Concert for February 2019, the program for which will include three of his pieces (two premieres: percussion quartet; percussion/guitar duet) followed by a curation of works from other composers.

Review of Symposium at Shanghai Conservatory

Below is a German review of the Symposium in which Köster took part at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music on January 11th & 12th of 2018. Original by Gesine Schröder of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie found here. »The Study of Serial Music Technology in China« Über ›total serialism‹ wurde in Shanghai nicht gesprochen; seriell bedeutete hier […]

New German Translations Added

Thanks to the talents of Axel Köster, German translations of the biography and composer’s notes for the following pieces have been added: Separate, internal, secluded Gelobt sei der Horizont! Duo Memory Fragments II Simone too much ego.