Dagfinn Koch (1964, Kristiansund, Norway) studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music (Norges musikkhøgskole) with Lasse Thoresen, composition; Olav Anton Thommessen, orchestration; Bjørn Kruse, arranging; Mads Claesson, Arild Erikstad og Tore Simonsen, music technology; Otto Berg, viola, and at Hochschule (now Universität) der Künste Berlin under Witold Szalonek, composition. From August 2011 does he study music theory at the Norwegian Academy of Music to get a Master of Arts degree.
Dagfinn has been freelancing since 1994, and has written music for orchestra, chamber and theatre groups, opera, ballet and fine art installations. He has worked as an arranger for performers such as Finn Coren and Lucifer Was, and has been a member of the Oslo Philharmonic program committee and of the board in the Composers Society and in the evaluation committee of TONO (the Norwegian BIM/ASCAP).
Dagfinn has lived in Oslo since 2005 after living thirteen years in Germany. In addition to his work as a composer, Dagfinn has worked in a youth club, as a teacher in music schools in Oslo, Bærum and Bergen, as a music copyist and engraver, and as a sound engineer at the Henie-Onstad Art Center. He has received several scholarships from TONO and was granted a two-year scholarship from the Norwegian Ministry for Cultural Affairs in 2006. He was accepted as a member of the Composers society in 1991.
Dagfinn has never been confined to a single particular style, but is more concerned with being able to musically move in any possible direction. This experience has now developed into a method (not style) which he calls Translucence – a method that builds on post war-modernism techniques combined with an idiomatic way of writing. For him it is important to use music to communicate a deeper meaning, and present a narrative music, which gives the listeners (and readers of his scores) a choice of possible interpretations. Koch is very fascinated by mysticism and occultism and is fond of the swedenborgian New Church.
