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.
Browse compositions by Kenneth T. Kosche
