Frost School of Music Associate Professor Juraj Kojš is many things. Among them are a composer, a multi-media artist, a performer, a technological innovator, a deeply experimental artist, a conservatory trained classical pianist, and an educator.
You could call him a philosopher-scientist-explorer of the infinite possibilities of music-making, technology, sound and performance. Or the name that Kojš invented for himself.
“I call myself an artphibian,” he says. “The way amphibians permeate different environments, an artphibian can go between different disciplines and combine them into a meaningful whole.”
As a professor at the Frost School for ten years, Kojš delights in teaching his students about the possibilities open to them, from music theory and electronic music, to a multi-media class that regularly fills up the year before.
“It’s not straightforward, but it’s super exciting,” he says. “Music is an incredibly rich and rewarding world.”
This spring, Kojš was one of 62 artists from across the United States to win a Creator Fund Award from New Music USA, the leading supporter of cutting edge contemporary music in this country. “It is a big deal,” says Kojš. “It is extremely competitive.”
He will use the New Music USA grant to support his latest collaboration, with Miami choreographer/dance theater artist Pioneer Winter, on DJ Apollo, which explores queer identity, myth, beauty, and the dynamics between older and younger generations.
The project continues Kojš’s 20 years as a vital presence in the Miami arts world. He’s received scores of commissions, grants, and awards, including several from the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; and created or collaborated on dozens of pieces, from solo multimedia performances to dance scores to ambitious, adventurous group works, to sound art installations in art galleries and botanical gardens. (One of the research interests listed in Kojš’ 27-page CV is “plant inspired art.”)
Kojš wide-ranging artistic explorations began in his native Slovakia, in the tiny village of Brobovec. He studied classical piano at the state conservatory, practicing for hours a day, devoted to classical technique and repertoire. “I loved it,” he says. In 1997 he came to the U.S. to get a B.M. in piano performance at the University of Maine, where he became interested in composition and technology.
Then, in 2000, he got a student pass for a two-week train odyssey that ended in Miami, where he was slated to get his master’s in composition at Florida International University (FIU). After cold, damp Slovakia and Maine, the lush, sub-tropical city was a revelation. “I stepped off the train and loved it so much immediately,” Kojš says. “I always connected with light and sun. I never get tired of it.”
Juraj Kojš in "Closer Encounters: The Orchid Adventure," one of his collaborative works, at the Miami Beach Bandshell. Photo by Osmany Torres, courtesy of Juraj Kojš.
At FIU, and while getting his doctorate at the University of Virginia and in post-doctoral work at Yale University, Koj explored a vast new world of ideas, experimentation, technological innovation, and new ways of thinking about sound, music, and art-making. “A big influence was discovering pieces by people like John Cage and Pauline Oliveros, which was eye and ear opening,” he says. “I started thinking about music in terms that are so much broader.”
Yet he retains a deep appreciation for the classical tradition and his rigorous conservatory training. “It’s such a useful set of tools,” he says. “That’s part of the nature of being a musician now – we have access to music from different traditions and periods at our fingertips. It’s our responsibility to be as informed and inclusive of as many traditions as we can.”
For all his depth of intellect and erudition, Kojš’ multimedia performance pieces can have a playful and personal spirit. A 2019 work, “The Home is in the Heart. The House. The Gates,” incorporated images of his grandmother’s house in Slovakia, where he and his siblings spent summers, and sounds recorded there, with Kojš playing piano and exchanging memories with his siblings.
“It was personal memories, personal histories, the way our childhood is unique,” he says. “Those places inspire us, they rejuvenate us.”
His 2021 work “Where Home Is,” was inspired by his own experience as an immigrant. Funded by a prestigious Knight New Work grant, commissioned by Live Arts Miami, and staged in a multi-level parking lot at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, “Where Home Is” took visitors on a sonic and interactive journey that reflected not only Kojš’ own odyssey, but the immigrant-filled city he has made his home.
“That piece combined my history as an immigrant in the U.S. and the idea of cultural exchange and sharing,” says Kojš, who became a U.S. citizen eight years ago. “One of the most beautiful things in Miami is you get to interact daily with people from different cultures. That makes our life and quality of life so much richer.”
