Thomas Kotcheff

Thomas Kotcheff
File:KOTCHEFF2022.jpg
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Kotcheff
Born	(1988-10-14) October 14, 1988 Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.
Genres	Contemporary classical, instrumental, orchestral, film
Occupation(s)	Composer, pianist
Instruments	Piano
Years active	2009–present
Website	www.thomaskotcheff.com

Thomas Kotcheff (born 1988) is an American composer and pianist who currently resides in Los Angeles. He is a winner of a 2016 Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a 2015 Presser Foundation Music Award.

Biography

Kotcheff was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and raised in Los Angeles, California. His parents are Laifun Chung and director Ted Kotcheff, and he has an older sister, Alexandra. He began taking piano lessons at the age of 4 and in 2006 he graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. In 2010, Kotcheff completed a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and then attended USC Thornton School of Music from 2010 to 2019 where he received a Masters of Master of Music and a Doctor of Music in Music Composition. He studied composition with Stephen Hartke, Donald Crockett, Frank Ticheli, and Steven Stucky, and piano with Benjamin Pasternack and Stewart L. Gordon.

Kotcheff serves as Ear Training and Music Theory Faculty at the Colburn School He is a teaching artist at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program. Kotcheff has held residencies at Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's National Composers Intensive, The Hermitage Artist Retreat, The Studios of Key West, and The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.

As a new music pianist, Thomas has dedicated himself to commissioning and premiering new piano works. In 2020, his performance of Frederic Rzewski's Songs of Insurrection was awarded Best Instrumental Recital Performance in Los Angeles by San Francisco Classical Voice's Audience Choice Awards. He released the world premiere recording of "Songs of Insurrection" on the Coviello Contemporary label.

Kotcheff is a founding member of the new music piano duo HOCKET with Sarah Gibson. He serves as a content contributor to 91.5 KUSC and is a livestream broadcast host for the Ojai Music Festival.

Selected works

Orchestral go and (2017) for orchestra Large ensemble gone/gone/gone beyond/gone beyond beyond (2016) for 10 musicians Chamber and through and through and through (2019) for string octet 5ERVO (2019) for percussion duo unbegun (2019) for string quartet and more and more and more and this (2018) for two pianos and two percussion then and then and then this (2018) for cello and percussion wgah'nagl fhtagn (2017) piano four-hands & toy piano go in in in in & in (2017) for five cellos not only that one but that one & that too (2016) for percussion quartet scratch cradle (2015) for string quartet Part and Parcel (2014) for percussion quartet death, hocket, and roll (2014) for two toy pianos bang Z (2014) for bass clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello gone into night are all the eyes (2013) for violin, cello, and piano that in shadow or moonlight rises (2014) for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, classical guitar, violin, cello, and bass hammer/ring (2012) for two vibraphones and two marimbas

Solo Obbligato Snare Drum Music No. 1: The Power of Love (2020) for snare drum and playback Cadenza (with or without Haydn) (2020) for cello vacuum packed (2020) for violin Etude I. Poorless Wheat Dogs (2018) for piano Vocal Ceceilia Speaks (2014) for soprano and piano

Selected awards and grants

• 2021 Illinois State University College of Fine Arts RED NOTE New Music Festival Composition Competition
• 2018 New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission
• 2016 Charles Ives Prize (Charles Ives Scholarship) American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2015 Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award
• 2015 BMI Foundation Student Composer Award
• 2014 Aspen Music Festival Hermitage Prize

Discography

• Frederic Rzewski: Songs of Insurrection (2020) Coviello Contemporary COV 92021

Film

Kotcheff provided the score to the 2019 independent film The Planters. Together with composer Ludwig Göransson, he co-wrote the tracks "Trinity" and "Something More Important" on the soundtrack of the 2023 film Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan. Together with composer Kris Bowers, he co-wrote the tracks "William Gracey", "It's Happy Hour Somewhere", and "Ghost Chase" on the soundtrack of the 2023 film Haunted Mansion by Justin Simien.