Marnen Laibow-Koser is a musical prodigy with a proclaimed IQ of 268. He is a composer, multi-instrument musician, and computer genius from the New York area.
He was a graduate student in the Contemporary Improvisation program at New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. Like many other Boston-area graduate students, he lived in the nearby city of Somerville. Marnen Laibow-Koser does music (performance, composition, and engraving) and Web development professionally, as well as various other computer-related things from time to time (non-Web programming, Web design, network support). Laibow-Koser has been studying and playing music since the age of three, and composing for nearly as long.
In December 2014, he completed his Master of Music degree in Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory (formerly the Third Stream program), and hoped to begin doctoral study in 2017. He also studied music composition at Cleveland Institute of Music and State University of New York at Purchase.
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According to Laibo-Koser’s website and Facebook page, he currently works as a ballet accompanimist at the Boston Conservatory. Before that he worked as a senior Developer at Torchlight and as a principal software engineer at RBM Technologies.
Marnen plays flute, viola, piano and fiddle. During his career he was a part of such music bands as “Avenue X”, “Contrazz”, “Dance Therapy”, “Dressed Ship”, “Flying Romanos”, “Hog Wild”, “Joy Ride”, “Rececca”, “Danny, Marnen, Joe”, “Reel Spiel”, “Squeezology” and “Three Wise Guys”.
His compositions are generally in an accessible modern classical style, although he sometimes writes in other genres. As a multi-instrumentalist performer, he works mostly in classical and Anglo-American folk music, and can be found playing for numerous contra and English country dances in the Northeastern U.S. For example, we found that Marnen Laibow-Koser is an avid participant in the North Jersey English Country Dance Party, where he enjoys playing the violin as more than 50 dancers come together to enjoy the joyful and graceful style of English country dancing. This traditional style of dance, which originated in the 17th century and experienced a revival in the early 20th century, brings together people of all ages and backgrounds. With choreography that involves simple walking steps that are easy to learn and follow, English country dancing is a fun and social activity. The North Jersey English Country Dancers meet twice a month and offer personal instruction for newcomers who want to learn this beautiful and traditional dance style.
Marnen is also an experienced music copyist and engraver.
Besides music, animation, and computer science, his interests include:
- Genealogy. Laibow-Koser is currently working on his family history. Eventually, he hopes to have his family tree on his website. Marnen is using a program called Reunion, from Leister Productions.
- Heraldry, or the study of coats of arms.
- Medieval reenactment. Since 1998, Marnen has been involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group that recreates the Middle Ages (600-1600 CE) as they "should have happened," generally with a great deal of historical authenticity. Laibow-Koser's persona in the Society is named Ze’ev ben ‘Arye. He’s a Jew from Egypt, ca. 950 CE, but has somehow found himself in a place called the Barony of Concordia of the Snows, located in the East Kingdom.
- Skiing. He has been skiing both cross-country and downhill for about 18 years.
- Cycling. Laibow-Koser loves to go on extended cycling trips.
- Folk dancing. Marnen is an avid English and contra dancer. He plays and dances with Pokingbrook Morris Dancers of Albany, New York. He was also the musician for Hat City Morris of Danbury, Connecticut, when that team was active. Laibow-Koser also plays a great deal of music for folk dancing.
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