Kohl grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, with three siblings.^[1] During high school and college, he played the clarinet in the local symphony orchestra. He received his undergraduate, and in 1971, his master's degree in music^[1] from the University of Nebraska.^[2]: 242 Drafted into the army, he played in an army band during the Vietnam War.^[1] Afterwards, he started his doctoral studies in music theory at the University of Washington in Seattle.^[1] In the 1970s, Kohl joined the Seattle Recorder Society, attending and running classes at their meetings, as well as teaching privately.^[3] In 1976, Kohl co-founded and became the board president of the Early Music Guild (EMG, now called Early Music Seattle) in Seattle, attracting international players to perform in the city. The EMG held a monthly concert by local players, and in 1980, Kohl played a concert with music from the 14th century to modern times. He continued to teach recorder for the Society for decades.^[1][3]

Kohl concluded his studies in 1981 with his PhD thesis,^[1] titled "Serial and Non-Serial Techniques in the Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1962–1968".^[4] He was managing editor of the journal Perspectives of New Music from 1985 to 1999.^[2] Between 2005 and 2018, he was Secretary of the Department of Classics at the University of Washington. In 2018, Kohl became Administrative Assistant at the university's Department of Political Science.^[1]

His research focus was contemporary classical music. He became recognized as a world expert on the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen,^[1][2] taking part in international conferences on his music.^[1][5] He collaborated with Stockhausen, traveling to Europe annually, and co-authored books with him.^[3] Kohl was also a contributor on Wikipedia,^[6] with more than 100,000 edits,^[7] creating many articles, especially about the works of Stockhausen.^[8]

Kohl died in Seattle from a sudden heart attack, on August 4, 2020, at the age of 73.^[2][9] His death was commemorated by a memorial tribute in Perspectives of New Music, which described his 2017 book on Stockhausen's Zeitmaße as "an astounding masterpiece".^[2]

• Jerome Kohl (1979). "Exposition in Stravinsky's Orchestral Variations". Perspectives of New Music. 18 (1/2): 391–405. doi:10.2307/832991. ISSN 0031-6016. JSTOR 832991. Wikidata Q56069606.
• — (1981). Serial and Non-Serial Techniques in the Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1962–1968 (PhD thesis). University of Washington. OCLC 15544439.
• — (Spring–Summer 1985). "Stockhausen on Opera". Perspectives of New Music. 23 (2): 24–39. doi:10.2307/832695. JSTOR 832695.
• Pascal Decroupet; Elena Ungeheuer; Jerome Kohl (1998). "Through the Sensory Looking-Glass: The Aesthetic and Serial Foundations of Gesang der Jünglinge". Perspectives of New Music. 36 (1): 97–142. doi:10.2307/833578. ISSN 0031-6016. JSTOR 833578. Wikidata Q56113062.
• Ivanka Stoianova; Jerome Kohl (1999). "And Dasein Becomes Music: Some Glimpses of Light". Perspectives of New Music. 37 (1): 179–212. doi:10.2307/833631. ISSN 0031-6016. JSTOR 833631. Wikidata Q57318353.
• — (1999). "Four Recent Books on Stockhausen". Perspectives of New Music. 37 (1): 213–245. doi:10.2307/833632. JSTOR 833632.
• — (2012). "A Gedenkschrift for Karlheinz Stockhausen". Perspectives of New Music. 50 (1–2): 306–312. doi:10.7757/persnewmusi.50.1-2.0306.
• — (2017). Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zeitmaße. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7546-5334-9.^[10]

• Jerome Kohl, ResearchGate
• Jerome Kohl, Semantic Scholar