Jerome Kitzke lives in New York City but grew up along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, where he was born in 1955. Since his first work in 1970, he has thought himself to be as much a storyteller as a composer. Some of the stories are about life’s personal roads, like The Redness of Blood which expresses the composer’s love for his blood family. Many, however, like Box Death Hollow and The Paha Sapa Give-Back are about the roads that go looking for what it means to be an American early in the 21st Century, especially as it relates to the connection between how we live on this land and the way we came to live on it. Kitzke’s music celebrates American Vitality in its purist forms. It thrives on the spirit of driving jazz, Plains Indian Song, and Beat Generation poetry, where freedom and ritual converge. It is direct, dramatic, and visceral, always with an ear to the sacred ground.
Mr. Kitzke composes for and performs with his group The Mad Coyote. His music has been performed in North and South America, Europe and Australia by such organizations as the Milwaukee Symphony, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Essential Music (New York), Present Music (Milwaukee), Earplay (San Francisco), Trio AKKOBASSO (Germany), and Zeitgeist (Minneapolis-St. Paul), and such artists as Guy Klucevsek, Margartet Leng Tan, Michael Lowenstern, Christine Schadeberg, Dora Ohrenstein, Wendy Chambers, Sally Wilson, Anthony de Mare, and Tom Linker. His music has also gotten radio play throughout the U.S. and Europe, including an all-Kitzke concert on WNYC’s New Sounds Live with John Schaefer. In 2000 Kitzke was one of fifty NYC composers photographed by Bruce Davidson for a portrait called “A Great Day in New York.” At a festival with the same name sponsored by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Kitzke was represented by two works. His latest work “Teeth of Heaven” was premiered on a series of concerts at Merkin Hall in NYC. Upcoming commissions have come from Zeitgeist, New York percussionist Tom Kolor, and the Kronos Quartet. Mr. Kitzke will spend five weeks at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy in 2003 working on “Winter Count” for Kronos. Mr. Ktizke’s CD “The Character of American Sunlight” is available from Koch International Classics (3-7456-2 H1). His music is published by Peermusic Classical.