Lou Kosma

Lou Kosma received his degree in music education with applied double bass from Temple University.  He studied with Roger M. Scott and Edward Arian; Principal bass and Assistant Principal Bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Henry Portnoi, Principal Bass of the Boston symphony. During the summers of 1967 and 1968, he was a fellowship student at Tanglewood.
   
Mr. Kosma performed with Metropolitan Opera Orchestra bass section from 1978 – 2014, serving as Acting Assistant Principal in the 2009 – 2010 and 2011 – 2012 seasons.  Lou teaches privately and was adjunct double bass instructor at New Jersey City University for 29 years.  From 2011 – 2019, he returned to NJCU as the Orchestra Director and in 2020 was added to Montclair State University as a bass instructor. Other adjunct positions included: Kean College, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and SUNY at Purchase. While freelancing from 1976 to 1986, Lou assumed other affiliations for which he performed as Principal Bass for the American Ballet Theatre, Principal Bass of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Acting Principal for the New Jersey Symphony and recently playing with the New York Philharmonic and Vermont Symphony.  He was also a member of the Chautauqua Symphony for 17 years. Currently, Lou is a member of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

In March of 2002, the Virtu Foundation honored Lou by naming its first double bass scholarship in his name and in February of 2014, Lou received the New Jersey Music Educators Distinguished Service Award at the NJMEA Conference in New Brunswick, NJ.