Karl Kohn, emeritus professor and composer-in-residence whose teaching and performances left an indelible mark on generations of students at Pomona College, passed away November 18 in Claremont. He was 98.
Kohn was born in Vienna in 1926 and began studying piano at the age of six. In 1939, as war broke out in Europe, he left Austria for a new life in New York. His undergraduate pre-med studies at Harvard University were interrupted when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He served in the Mariana Islands and was assigned to an Army band, eventually becoming bandmaster. Returning to Harvard after his military service, he focused on music, earning a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude and later a master of arts degree.
Kohn joined the Pomona College music department faculty in 1950 and taught theory and composition during his 44-year career. He was the Thatcher Professor of Music and later the William Keck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus. When he retired in 1994, an alumna recalled in a Pomona College Today (now Pomona College Magazine) article that his teaching style was “fresh, inventive, magical in its effects.” He was, she wrote, “a nationally renowned composer of finely imagined, impeccably crafted music who is a crack pianist and conductor to boot; a man with uncompromisingly high standards.”
Thomas Flaherty, emeritus professor of music and a friend of Kohn’s for more than 40 years, describes him as a key part of the new music scene in Los Angeles. “He had dinner with the likes of Stravinsky and Boulez and gave stunning performances of their music,” Flaherty says, including “his regular performances of Boulez’s ‘Structures’ and Stravinsky’s ‘Les Noces’ with his wife of 74 years, pianist extraordinaire Margaret Kohn,” who also taught at Pomona, starting in 1970.
As a pianist, Kohn performed across the U.S. and Europe, including with the Boston Pops Orchestra. His compositions—the listing of which fills many pages—were performed by major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. His music is published by Carl Fischer, Inc., GunMar Music, Inc. and Edition Contemp Art, Vienna.
In support of Kohn’s musical endeavors, he was named a Fulbright Research Scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow. He also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Howard, Ford and Mellon foundations. He was a member of the board of directors of the Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles, a founding member of the American Society of University Composers, and the recipient of numerous ASCAP awards, which recognized annually the “prestige value” of music composed, performed and recorded during the year.
Kohn credited teaching in a liberal arts college with helping to shape his work as a composer, noting, “My music, I think, turned out more accessible because of balancing what I was interested in as a musician and what I was dealing with as a teacher.” He succeeded in both worlds, with Pomona students voting him a Wig Distinguished Professorship Award, the highest teaching award bestowed on Pomona faculty, in 1968.
Alumni and colleagues remember Kohn’s profound impact and generosity. “Walking past my bookshelf just now I realized he once gave me an autobiography of the composer Ernst Krenek signed to Karl,” recalls Oliver Dubon ’20, now a composer himself. “Running into him in the halls of Thatcher or meeting in his office always left me with a massive smile on my face and eager to write music.”
Rachel Rudich, flutist and lecturer in music at Pomona, reflects on 30 years of friendship and musical partnership with Kohn, which included recording together a double CD of all his music for flute. “Karl played on three pieces, and still, at 93, was a fabulous pianist, accompanist, partner in music. It was a huge undertaking, a labor of love.”
For Associate Professor and Music Department Chair Joti Rockwell, Kohn’s passing was a loss felt immediately. “Just last week, he had a piece of his performed by the Pomona College Band, and he and Margie were in attendance,” says Rockwell. Even at 98, “he was scheduled to do a class visit with our seminar for senior music majors.” Rockwell says three decades after retiring, Kohn “was eager to help them with their music.”
Flaherty sums up his friend and colleague as a “brilliant composer, pianist, raconteur, and all around mensch who delighted the musical and Pomona College communities with his compositions, his performances, and his endless supply of jokes, told with a relish that was all his own. He leaves a giant hole in our hearts.”
Kohn is survived by his wife, Margaret, daughters Susanna Kohn and Emily Kohn Berthel, son-in-law Craig Berthel, and grandchildren Julia Berthel and Henry Berthel.