Olaf Koch (conductor)

Olaf Koch (14 January 1932 – 22 August 2001) was a German conductor and Hochschullehrer.

In 1964, he was appointed General Music Director at the Meiningen Court Theatre. At the end of the 1960s, he turned to concert conducting, and for over twenty years he was the principal conductor of the Staatliches Sinfonieorchester and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle, which he led to national recognition. Koch championed Neue Musik works by East German (Günter Kochan among others) and Soviet composers. In 1979 he received the National Prize of the GDR.

Initially appointed Conducting Professor at Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar, he served as Rector of the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" from 1982 to 1986.