Composer at the helm of Inotherm
She is the first musician in her family and a talented pianist. After earning her degree in composition and music theory at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, she continued her postgraduate studies in Dresden and completed her Master of Performance in Munich. Today, she is a recognized composer, an assistant professor of composition at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, the youngest full member of the SAZU presidency, and a recipient of two prestigious contemporary music awards: the Fux Award for the opera Canvas and the Erste Bank Kompositionspreis for her body of work. Nina Šenk Kosem is all this and more — a mother, a wife, and the director of Europe’s largest manufacturer of aluminum entrance doors.
From the Silence of Composing to Leading a Company
Over the years of composing, Nina built an admirable international career, wrapped in the silence of the composer’s room. Yet, with each passing year, it became clearer that there were things music alone could not replace.
“The artist’s profession is beautiful, but lonely,” she says. “I began to miss being part of a work collective, contact with people, and the daily dynamics. The life of a composer consists of long periods of solitary and often isolated creation, which culminates in just a few hours of intense work with an orchestra. This doesn’t allow for a true balance between individual work and group dynamics.”
Although her parents had asked her several times before when she would join the family business, she postponed the decision for a long time—because of small children, creative drive, and mostly the feeling that the time wasn’t right. But after the loss of her mother, who had led the company for many years, something shifted.
“At that time, I processed many emotions through music and wrote compositions dedicated to her. At the same time, I realized that music alone couldn’t really help or change the company. Since I started working at the company, that has changed,” says the musician, who now runs Inotherm together with her father.
More in Common Than It Seems
Switching from musical scores to an office desk in a company may seem like a 180-degree turn at first glance, but in reality, it is more of a transition from one structure to another.
“Being a composer means being a strategist. You have to anticipate the form, think holistically and ahead, and connect seemingly incompatible parts into a harmonious whole,” says Nina. According to her, the work of a freelance artist, especially a composer, is by no means just creating music. It also involves marketing, administration, accounting, communication with clients and orchestras in different countries and languages. “A successful composer must have a sense of work, responsibility, and organization,” she adds.
What excites her most about entrepreneurship is the daily teamwork, coordinating ideas, exchanging views, and finding common solutions with different people. Her new orchestra may not have instruments, but it’s still about matching voices, connecting, and having the sensitivity to lead toward a common goal.
The Art of Leadership and Leading Art
“Am I good at what I’m doing now? I don’t know. I only know that I try just as hard as I did as a composer,” says the young director with sincere humility, a leadership instinct nurtured from cradle and learned through her parents’ way of working.
She confirms that music has taught her precision, patience, and above all, true listening. “A good composer is not someone who can put everything they know into a piece. A good composer is someone who can recognize what each individual can contribute at a given moment so that the orchestra as a whole achieves the best possible effect.”
In the same way she stands before an orchestra, today she sits among people. She is a composer with her vision, who must convince a hundred musicians in a few minutes to perform her work with heart. In business, the principle is the same: find a common rhythm, clearly and respectfully communicate the goal, and unite differences into something that sounds like a well-rehearsed whole.
The Composition of Inotherm
If Inotherm were an orchestral composition, according to Nina, it would sound like life itself with all its ups and downs. It would have moments of love and softness, harmonious collaboration, but also passages of unrest, storms, and sudden rhythms.
“We are a colorful ensemble of stories, each with its own role and tone, yet all sharing a common vision. Like a ship sailing in the same direction whether the sea is calm or rough,” she says. This composition hasn’t been created yet, but she feels it awaits her before the end of her career. “But whether I’ll reveal if the composition will be about Inotherm or not, I don’t know yet,” she adds with a playful smile.
Music That Still Resonates
Although she composes more moderately today, she remains devoted to music. She writes about two compositions a year, as artistic creation is part of her identity—one she never intends to fully give up.
Her creative signature remains strongly present, with her works continuing to live on concert stages across Europe. In the coming year, she will have an evening dedicated to her music in Munich, as well as presentations at festivals in Stuttgart and Berlin.
Nina Šenk Kosem proves that music and entrepreneurship are not necessarily opposing worlds, but two expressions of the same creative force. It can be a symphony or a strategy, a melody or a vision—after all, creativity does not have just one face.
