Benjamin Koller

Biography

Benjamin "Jamie" Koller (b. 26 February 1999, Titusville, Fla.) is an American composer, teacher, and vocalist

Mr. Koller received the B.M in acoustic composition and electronic music at the University of South Florida. He is currently [2022] pursuing the M.M. in composition at the Frost School of Music at University of Miami, where he teaches undergraduate aural skills and improvisation as a teaching assistant under the Experiential Music Curriculum. Previous and present composition teachers include Dorothy Hindman, Lansing McLoskey, Baljinder Sekhon, Paul Reller, and Benjamin D. Whiting.

Koller's music explores sonority through a variety of compositional facets including colorful orchestration, theater, improvisation and electronic music. His output exhibits a wide array of interests representing a variety of instrumentations, including music for soloist, chamber ensemble and large ensemble, as well as electroacoustic works. Benjamin has written for a variety of performers and ensembles throughout different workshops and festivals across the United States, including the Charlotte New Music Festival, Hypercube Composition Lab, and the Oregon Bach Festival Composer Symposium. Furthermore, he has received performances of his works by notable ensembles such as Loadbang and Hypercube. He is actively involved in collaboration across various artistic media.

In 2022, Koller’s work ASSEMBLY for wind ensemble won first place in the Frost Large Ensemble Composition Competition, resulting in a premiere by the Frost Wind Ensemble in October of 2022. In addition, Koller’s sinfonietta entitled Meza Muziko won first place in the in-house Ensemble Ibis Composition Competition, which received its premiere by Ensemble Ibis in October of 2022. In July of 2021, Koller’s work Fever Dream was selected for the SCI Region IV Student Composer Mixtape.

Recently, Koller collaborated with filmmaker Martin Hidalgo in scoring his short film Eclipse on the Hypothalamus, which was performed and showcased live at University of Miami’s “Sound of Silents” film exhibition. Koller has worked with composers/performers to create sound installations accompanying visual art at the USF Contemporary Art Museum. He also participated in the Identity and the Art of Introduction Workshop, led by artist Nick Cave, in which Koller worked with dancers and other performance artists in a collaborative setting.

Koller actively seeks to promote new music and living composers, and has served as the public relations director and logistics coordinator for the New Music Consortium at the University of South Florida. He is currently the president of University of Miami's SCI chapter.

Works for Winds

Resources

Benjamin Koller website Accessed 9 October 2022