About

Born near Cologne in Germany in 1974, Sven-Ingo Koch studied composition, electronic composition, piano and musicology in Essen (Germany), San Diego and Stanford. Among his teachers were Nicolaus A. Huber, Dirk Reith, Roger Reynolds and Brian Ferneyhough. Also influential to Sven-Ingo Koch were the years he – due to these studies – spent in the USA (between 1999 and 2003) and the environments and the life he could experience there in California.

Now – after some residencies in France and Italy – again living in Germany (but quite missing the deserts and beaches of the American West Coast)  Koch’s music is performed frequently at numerous festivals worldwide (such as the Munich Biennale, Witten Days for New Chamber Music, the Lyon Biennale, the festivals Eclat, Ultraschall, Musica Viva, MDR Music Summer, Dresden New Music Days, Warsaw Autumn, Musica Nova Helsinki, Leicester International Music Festival, Festival Présences Paris, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival etc.) and was selected among other venues to the World New Music Days 2004 in Lucerne, Switzerland and the Gaudeamus New Music Week in Amsterdam 2005. In 2007 Sven-Ingo Koch was Composer in Residence of the Rencontres Musicales de Haute Provence.

Being performed by orchestras such as the Radio Symphony Orchestra of the SWR, the Symphony Orchester of the Bavarian Radio, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra Sven-Ingo Kochs music also is frequently interpreted by quartets such as the Arditti, Auryn, Vogler,  Carducci, Michelangelo and Sonar Quartet, furthermore by ensembles such as Musikfabrik, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Ascolta, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Resonanz and Neue Vocalsolisten to name just a few. In collaboration with Ensemble Ascolta he composed music to abstract experimental films of the 1920s by Walter Ruttmann, which have been shown several times on German and French television channels. Sven-Ingo Koch closely works together with soloists like Chen Halevi or Jean-Guihen Queyras and poet Jan Wagner.

Sven-Ingo Koch received among other prizes the Folkwang Prize 1999, the third Bach Prize Hannover 2000, the Cynet Art honorary mention 2001, the German Industry Federation’s Young Composers Prize 2001, the Stuttgart Award 2003, the Düsseldorf Music Prize 2006 and – most important – the German Romeprize 2011. Sven-Ingo Koch also was awarded the Aeolian Trio Prize 2004, the Elisabeth-Schneider-Prize 2005, the Prize of the Weimarer Frühjahrstage 2006 and the Prize of the Dresdener piano trio competition 2006.  Sven-Ingo Koch, furthermore, obtained scholarships from the German Government (DAAD) (1999-2000), Stanford University (2000-2003), the Academy of Arts Berlin (in 2000 and 2002), GRAME, Lyon 2003, the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung 2004, the Künstlerhof Schreyahn 2005, Schloss Solitude 2007, a grant to stay in Venice in 2008, a scholarship by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation 2011, an Istanbul residency in 2014 and a grant to stay in Casa Baldi, Italy in 2015. In 2008 he was also visiting artist at the ZKM. Since 2018 he is member of the German Academy of Music Authors.

His works were commissioned by WDR, BR, SWR, DeutschlandRadio Kultur, DLF, Munich Biennal, Expo2000, Festival Intonations, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, ADEvantgarde, Kunststiftung NRW, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Musik der Jahrhunderte, Concert Society Schwerte, Rencontres Musicales de Haute-Provence, Academy of Arts Berlin, Norwegian Arts Council, Beethoven House Bonn, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Neue Vocalsolisten, Ensemble ascolta, ClaRecords, Zeitfenster Biennal Berlin, Galery Ficher-Rohr Basel, arte, Zeitkunst Berlin, Klangforum Heidelberg, Musikfabrik, Ministry for Art NRW.

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