Take Five with Accordionist Nathan Koci

Meet Nathan Koci

Nathan Koci is a composer, performer, and music director working across a variety of styles and disciplines, from jazz to theater to dance to improvised and experimental musics. His album Solomon Diaries Vol IV & V (Adhyaropa Records, 2025) with clarinetist Sam Sadigursky is a modern take on Klezmer jazz.

As an accordionist, he has performed and recorded with Sam Sadigursky, Guy Klucevsek, South African artist William Kentridge, Maira Kalman, the Michael Leonhart Orchestra, and the improvising chamber quartet The Hands Free (Caroline Shaw, Eleonore Oppenheim, James Moore). As a seasoned music director, he has conducted Tony-award winning shows on Broadway, off-Broadway, and internationally. Credits include Sufjan Stevens and Justin Peck's Illinoise, Anais Mitchell's Hadestown (1st National Tour), Daniel Fish's reimagined Oklahoma! and Most Happy In Concert, and Ted Hearne's The Source. He gravitates towards new works, having recently collaborated with William Kentridge on his multi-modal theater work The Great Yes, The Great No as a musical arranger and performer, touring internationally through 2026.

Instruments:

Accordion, free-bass accordion, piano, banjo, trumpet, french horn.  

Teachers and/or influences?

My main accordion mentor over the years has been Guy Klucevsek. He's been such a bastion of the new music and downtown music scenes in NYC for a long time, both as an accordionist and a composer. We met in 2005 when he was in my hometown, Charleston, SC, performing on the Spoleto USA Festival. Once I really got serious about the instrument, he really gave me a lot of guidance as a performer and artist in general. I've had the good fortune to perform his music solo in the last few years, and it's really humbling and satisfying. I also dedicated a new tune, "Second Hand," to him on the Solomon Diaries album.  

I knew I wanted to be a musician when...

As nerdy as it is, the first time I played duets in a French horn lesson with my teacher, I had to stop playing because I was grinning so hard. Social music making got me early, via wind band and jazz band and orchestra, but it's the way of being with other people that makes the most sense to me, and I feel like being with other people is one of the only things that matters.  

Your sound and approach to music.

I'm classically trained, but after my undergrad, I got a bit of a masters degree playing in clubs with small jazz ensembles, and wine shops with folk singers. I'm always trying to stay curious about simplicity and complexity, and how they can both exist and contribute to a moment. I trained both as a pianist and a brass player, so the combined keys and lungs/bellows of the accordion has always made a particular sense to my ears. I try to approach most things like chamber music of some sort, with an ear always to the orchestration of the moment, even in improvised settings.  

Your teaching approach

Most of my learning, and therefore my teaching, boils down to listening to music. Emulate the things you like, unpack them and figure out what you like and why, and then set to creating more of those type of things.

Your dream band

We had the good fortune of a roster of amazing guests on The Solomon Diaries albums (Volumes IV-V). Meg Okura on violin, Matt Darriau on kaval and sax, Timo Andres and Danny Fox on pianos, and Joe Brent on mandolin. If we could take that band on the road, and do a widescreen version of the record, it would indeed be a dream!  

Road story: Your best or worst experience

When I was in college, Ray Charles was still touring and hiring local orchestras. One of the more seasoned horn players got sick, and I magically got the call to play 4th horn with Ray Charles. The gig was unlike anything else I was doing at the time, but made a huge impact.  

Favorite venue

Barbes in Brooklyn, NY  

Your favorite recording in your discography and why?

Of course I am biased, but the new volumes of The Solomon Diaries are really special. Sam Sadigursky and I started from a very programmatic place with the project, really ruminating on specific locations in the Borscht Belt and their rise and fall. With the new albums, we really stretched past that into some fun places, musically. Having a project that keeps evolving is such a special thing that I'm grateful for.  

What do you think is the most important thing you are contributing musically?

I'd like to think I'm a really intuitive and sensitive accompanist on the accordion. I've never really taken to solo playing on any instrument, and so getting to be the entire rhythm section can be a really great opportunity.  

Did you know...

I've worked on multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway shows as a music director and conductor! It's the world's best day job.    

Music you are listening to now:

Tommaso-Mirabassi-Zanchini Trio Basso Profilo (Cam Jazz, 2011)
Rachel Eckroth & John Hadfield Speaking in Tongues (Adhyaropa Records, 2025)
Melinda Sullivan & Larry Goldings Big Foot (Colorfield Records, 2024)
Black Thought & Danger Mouse Cheat Codes (BMG, 2022)
Leenalchi Sugungga (HIKE, 2020)  

What is in the near future?

Sam Sadigursky and I are releasing volumes IV and V of The Solomon Diaries, and playing a bunch of shows in and around NYC in the Spring and Summer of 2025. I tour internationally with the artist William Kentridge, along with an incredible team of South African musicians, dancers, actors, and creators, with the show The Great Yes, The Great No. I'm also working on a new musical by the NYC songwriter Ethan Lipton, and continue to be on the team of music directors that keeps Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown churning on Broadway.

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