Stephen Cohn

For other persons with a similar name, see Stephen Cohen.

Stephen Cohn is a composer of concert and film music living in Los Angeles, California. His compositional style embraces an expanded tonality with a 21st-century perspective.

Early life

Cohn was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father was an attorney who wrote chamber music as a hobby whilst his mother was a dancer and violinist and his sister a flutist. Cohn studied the clarinet as a child and later, classical guitar. Cohn attended Whitman College in Washington and finished his Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in music at California State University at Northridge.[1]

Career

Stephen's first public work came courtesy of the mid-1960s folk quartet The Pleasure Fair,[2] also featuring guitarist and songwriter Robb Royer (later of the popular 1970's band Bread). This group, with Stephen on guitar and assisting with vocal arrangements, released their first single in 1966 under the name of The Rainy Day People,[3] before becoming The Pleasure Fair and issuing a self-titled LP the following year.[4] In 1973 Stephen also released a self-titled solo album on Motown Records.

His first string quartet, Eye of Chaos was premiered by the Arditti Quartet, who also recorded the work for release on an Albany Records CD entitled, Arditti Quartet California Composers. His chamber orchestra work, Noah’s Rhythm was premiered at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, conducted by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Steven Stucky. He has been invited twice to be Composer in Residence at The International Musical Encounters of Catalonia which he attended in the south of France. His violin duet, Matin Sur les Collines de Ceret was performed at the Otzberg Summer Festival in Germany. In 2006, his orchestral work Finale, from Two Together, an American Folk Music Suite was premiered by the Kansas City Symphony.[5] The same work is part of an At Peace Media CD release which won at Parents’ Choice Gold Award in 2003.[6] Also in 2006, his work for choir and chamber orchestra commissioned by the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music, entitled The Family of God was premiered at Merkin Hall in New York City.

His concert works have been performed and recorded by the world's finest orchestras and chamber music ensembles in the United States and Europe, such as the Arditti Quartet, the Kansas City Symphony, the Prague Philharmonic the Chroma String Quartet, the Eclipse Quartet, Palomar, and the Midnight Winds. He has been Composer-in-Residence at The International Encounters of Catalonia in France and has been commissioned to compose new works which have been performed in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Fort Worth, Kearney, Tempe, Jacksonville, Black Mountain, Hoover, Montgomery, Huntsville, and in Europe and Asia in Rome, Brussels, Ceret, Passau, Berlin, Orihuela, China (various cities), and Prague. His composition, Sea Change, ''was performed at the Hear Now Festival in Los Angeles.

Stephen’s classical and commercial recordings have been released by Warner Bros., Motown, A&M Records, Columbia Records, Albany Records and At Peace Media. He has been commissioned to compose music for theater productions which have played in large and small theaters in the Los Angeles area.

He has received an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Music", and his scores have been part of many award winning productions and feature films which included such stars as Lily Tomlin, Joanne Woodward, Kathleen Quinlan, Colleen Dewhurst, William Shatner, and Wallace Shawn. He has received a Parents’ Choice Gold Award for his CD release, “Two Together, An American Folk Music Suite”.

Recent premieres include: Metaphors and Contrasts for woodwind quintet, Essay for Guitar and Dance in the Dream for Classical Guitar, The Giver of Stars, for cappella choir, Seven Dances for piano, Winter Soul, for string quartet (reviewed in the Huffington Post), Sea Change for Pierrot Ensemble, and American Spring for string trio and marimba (reviewed in the Huffington Post) and Aerial Perspectives and Aria for Winds both premiered in Los Angeles and reviewed in LA Opus.

Recent commissions include: Pacific Serenades, Chamber Music Palisades, Red Cedar Chamber Music, The Shumei Arts Council.


Links to some recent reviews of premieres: Huffington Post viñeta http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rodney-punt/world-premiere-of-america_b_1411618.html?ref=arts LA Opus viñeta http://www.laopus.com/2012/09/hear-now-music-festival-in-venice.html Classical Voice America viñeta http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2012/09/04/hear_now_festival/ LA Opus viñeta http://www.laopus.com/2015/04/composer-stephen-cohn-with-wind-players.html

Awards

He was given an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Music” for his chamber orchestra score for the documentary "Dying with Dignity", starring Colleen Dewhurst.[1] He has also been given awards and commissions by American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the American Composers Forum, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The Harris Foundation, Joan Palevsky, Carol and Joel Honigberg, The Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and The Parent’s Choice Foundation.

Material

Performances

A selected list of performances of music by Stephen Cohn is below.

Film and TV Scores

A selected list of material that has been used or featured in film and television pieces, is found below.

References

  1. 1 2 "Member Bio:Stephen Cohn". American Composers forum. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  2. ↑ Tim Hallinan's blog
  3. ↑ Listing of Hanna Barbara singles
  4. ↑ Image at James Lindquist's Website
  5. ↑ "Gracenotes:Renowned Composer Stephen Cohn Counts Sibelius Among His Essential Tools". December 2005. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  6. ↑ "Two Together, An American Folk music Suite". Parent's Choice. Retrieved 2008-01-10.

External links

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