About

Composition

Ingrid takes fun seriously. She composes with both the teacher and the student in mind. Her pieces make it easy and fun to instruct as well as to play and listen. Students will engage more with the music when they are having fun and using their imaginations.

Teaching

Ingrid loves teaching string students. She loves to watch the lightbulb go on over their heads when they learn a new concept or overcome a technical challenge.

About Ingrid Koller

Ingrid Koller is a freelance violist, violin and viola instructor, and composer in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

She has played in numerous ensembles and orchestras and has been a member of the Lake String Quartet for over 30 years. Nationally recognized artists for whom Ingrid has played include Roy Clark, Michael Card, and Fernando Ortega. For 19 years, Ingrid was a co-director of the Early Bird String Academy, a before-school orchestra program in North Saint Paul, Minnesota. Inspired by her students, she writes engaging and imaginative pieces for string orchestra and small ensembles.

Inspired by her students, she writes engaging and imaginative pieces for string orchestra and small ensembles.

Ingrid studied with John Tartaglia at the University of Minnesota where she obtained a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance. Ingrid is a member of the Viola Society of America, American String Teacher’s Association, American Composer’s Forum, and ASCAP.

Inspiration

"What inspires me to create music? A big idea, a problem to solve, or a need to fill is what seems to do the trick."

“A big idea: Adeste Fiddles was inspired by my terrible handwriting. It was late fall and a fellow teacher and I were discussing upcoming Christmas pieces for our orchestra students to play. I wrote down ‘Adeste Fideles’ but my handwriting was so bad that my friend looked at it and said, ‘Adeste Fiddles?’ I could instantly see (and hear in my head) the potential for a rollicking version of Adeste Fideles that included lots of fun fiddle rhythms. Adeste Fiddles was published by LudwigMasters Publications in 2019.

“A need to fill: Five Duets was started many years ago when I wanted to play some duets with one of my students. I searched and searched (this was so long ago, a quick search on Google wasn’t even a thing…) but I couldn’t really find what I needed. I finally decided it would be easier write some. I wrote a piece for us to play, what is now the first movement, ‘Sweet and Simple. That was so much fun, I just kept going until I had a set of five movements. Over the years, I would pull these out and perform them with my violist friends. It wasn’t until 2018 that I decided to get these launched and out into the world.”