Božidar Kos

Božidar Kos (Novo Mesto, 3 May 1934) is a Slovenian composer who spent much of his career in Australia. Before settling there in 1965, he had studied cello, music theory and mechanical engineering in Slovenia and had performed and arranged jazz in various European countries. His Australian academic career began with composition studies under Richard Meale at the University of Adelaide, where he completed his master's degree in 1975.

Between 1975 and 1983 he taught alternately at Torrens College of Advanced Education and at the University of Adelaide itself, where he held a composition fellowship. In 1984 he moved to the Sydney Conservatorium, where he became head of composition in 1991. The University of Sydney awarded him his doctorate in 1998. The same period brought him three Australian music critics' awards, one of them for his Violin Concerto (1986).

His style takes Boulez as a fundamental influence and seeks to combine the textural and harmonic discipline of the European avant-garde with references to jazz, folk popular music and the higher harmonics of the harmonic series. After an initial phase devoted to electronic music, in the 1980s his chamber works, such as the String Quartet (1982), Catena I–II or Quasar, established a carefully crafted complexity. In the 1990s he applied the same craftsmanship to orchestral writing, with pieces such as Aurora Australis (1997).