ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Daniel L. Kosko is currently in his 7th year of teaching music at Bishop Ireton High School, a private catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia. His duties there include teaching choir, string orchestra, AP music theory, guitar, and assisting with the band program. He also teaches a music history class for Northern Virginia Community College, doing so since 2004.

Prior to his appointment at Ireton, Mr. Kosko was a band director for 32 years for Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, retiring in 2014. He spent the majority of his career at Robert Frost Middle School where the band program grew from 75 students to over 250 during his tenure.  The Frost Symphonic Band had the honor of performing at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago in 1999. In 2001 the band program received the prestigious Sudler Silver Cup from the John Philip Sousa Foundation, an award recognizing middle school band programs that demonstrate consistently high standards over many years. 

Since 1995 Mr. Kosko has served on the executive board of the Virginia Band & Orchestra Directors Association as the editor of the state Selective Music List. He is active as a guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States. In 2000-2016 he served as a conductor for the Virginia Ambassadors of Music, conducting high school band students on summer concert tours throughout Europe.

As a composer Mr. Kosko has written band music for ensembles of all levels, including commissioned works for high school and adult community bands. Mr. Kosko earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in Composition from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and a Master’s Degree in Music Education and Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He has studied conducting with Robert Ricks, Robert Garafalo, Fredrick Ockwell, John Paynter and Anthony Maiello, as well as having had the opportunity to study privately for two years with Dr. Fredrick Fennell.

Mr. Kosko resides in Burke, Virginia with his wife Jennifer and his Siberian Husky, Cooper. He enjoys playing golf, cheering for his beloved Washington Nationals baseball team, and umpiring high school baseball.

Works by Daniel Kosko

Symphony Band

Fairfax Fanfare