Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski

Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski (21 June 1949 – 5 January 2013)^[1] was a German composer.

Schmidt-Kowalski was born at Oldenburg in 1949.^[2] He studied composition at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Berlin under Frank Michael Beyer (1971) and at the Musikhochschule Hannover under Alfred Koerppen (1972–77).^[2] In the course of his studies, Schmidt-Kowalski turned from the musical avant-garde and chose to write in a more traditional vein.^[2] Since the late 1970s he worked as a freelance composer, mainly writing commissioned works for soloists and events.^[2] His compositions have been performed in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Sydney, Melbourne, Mexico City, and Yokohama, and have been recorded on the Naxos label. Schmidt-Kowalski latterly emerged as a conductor of his own works.