Zachary Kohlmeier is a composer, arranger, and transcriber that specializes in writing in cross-genre styles. He holds a Bachelor of Music Composition degree from Olivet Nazarene University (’13), where he studied under Dr. Karen Ball and a Master of Fine Arts in Music Composition from Vermont College of Fine Arts (’17). In Vermont Kohlmeier had the privilege of receiving mentorship from master composers Diane Moser, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Mike Early, and Ravi Krishnaswami. He began teaching composition and music technology at Olivet Nazarene University in the fall semester of 2013.
For his Master's thesis at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Kohlmeier investigated new ways of incorporating narration into instrumental music. His final work for the program was “Muriel,” a three-movement suite for woodwind quintet and featured narration written by Olivet Nazarene University alumni Ian Matthews (’12). During this program, he also studied writing electro-acoustic music for Baroque instruments, constructing a fusion piece with disco and flamenco elements, composing songs with children as the intended audience, writing for commercial media, and several other focused studies.
A lover of all music, Kohlmeier aspires to write in as many genres as possible and encourages his students to explore new sounds as well. He believes that music students of Olivet Nazarene University have a unique opportunity to learn how to create not only beautiful music for God and the Church but also create a positive culture in today’s music scene.
Zachary Kohlmeier is a member of Kappa Delta Pi honor society for educators. In 2017 he was invited into the Materia Collective, a group of composers and arrangers focused on the creation of new and arranged video game music. Examples of his recorded music are on SoundCloud.