Paul Cohen (saxophonist)
Encyclopedia
Paul Cohen is an American saxophonist. He is active as a performer, teacher, historian, musicologist, and author in areas related to the saxophone
.
, and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from the Manhattan School of Music
.
, New Jersey Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi
and others. He has performed solo works of Jacques Ibert
, Claude Debussy
, Paul Creston
, Alexander Glazunov
, Charles Martin Loeffler
, Karel Husa
, Frank Martin
, Ingolf Dahl
, Henry Cowell
, and Henri Tomasi
.
He performs with orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the New York Solisti, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony
, Cleveland Ballet
, Group for Contemporary Music, NEP Symphony, Wayne Chamber Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, and the Long Island Philharmonic
.
He has recorded three albums with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds, a CD of the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos
with the Quintet of the Americas, plus recordings with the Saxophone Sinfonia, New York Solisti, Paul Winter Consort
, North-South Consonance, and the New Sousa Band.
His two most recent recordings include an environmental-jazz CD of solo improvisation as well as the newly discovered saxophone concerto of the 19th century American composer Caryl Florio.
, Mason Gross School of the Arts
, William Paterson University
, New York University
, Montclair State University
, and Queens College. He has previously taught at the Oberlin Conservatory.
In the 1980s he served on the staff of Lee Patrick
's Saxophone Institutes held at the University of Louisville
as a conductor and chamber music coach. He worked with Sigurd Raschèr
at Raschèr's saxophone workshops in the 1990s.
He has rediscovered and performed lost saxophone literature, including solo works for saxophone and orchestra by Loeffler, Florio and Dahl, as well as rare chamber works by Grainger, Ornstein, Cowell, Siegmeister and Loeffler.
His album of unusual saxophones, "Paul Cohen's Vintage Saxophones Revisited: A tour of the early history of the saxophone," was recorded in 19__.
Cohen's publishing company, To the Fore Publishers, offers original, historical and contemporary saxophone works from a wide range of composers in addition to Cohen's own arrangements and settings for saxophone ensemble. His collection of songs and dances transcribed for saxophone quartet, The Renaissance Book, is published by Galaxy Music.
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
.
Education
He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of MusicBaldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music
The Baldwin–Wallace College Conservatory of Music is part of Baldwin-Wallace College which is located in Berea, Ohio. The main building is Kulas Hall. The Conservatory is home to the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach Festival in the United States.-History:The...
, and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
.
Performing career
He has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the San Francisco SymphonySan Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
, New Jersey Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi
Philharmonia Virtuosi
The Philharmonia Virtuosi is a chamber orchestra that first performed in 1974. It was founded by Richard Kapp, who conducted the orchestra until the time of his death in 2006....
and others. He has performed solo works of Jacques Ibert
Jacques Ibert
Jacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...
, Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Paul Creston
Paul Creston
Paul Creston was an Italian American composer of classical music.Born in New York City to Sicilian immigrants, Creston was self‐taught as a composer. He was an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity, initiated into the national honorary Alpha Alpha chapter...
, Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
, Charles Martin Loeffler
Charles Martin Loeffler
Charles Martin Loeffler was a German-born American violinist and composer.- Birthplace :Throughout his career Loeffler claimed to have been born in Mulhouse, Alsace and almost all music encyclopedias give this fabricated information. In his lifetime articles were published dissecting his...
, Karel Husa
Karel Husa
Karel Husa is a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition...
, Frank Martin
Frank Martin (composer)
Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...
, Ingolf Dahl
Ingolf Dahl
Ingolf Dahl was a German-born American composer, pianist, conductor, and educator.-Biography:Born in Hamburg, Germany to a German father and a Swedish mother, his birth name was Walter Ingolf Marcus. He studied with Philipp Jarnach at the Hochschule für Musik Köln...
, Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:...
, and Henri Tomasi
Henri Tomasi
Henri Tomasi was a French classical composer and conductor.- The early years :Henri Tomasi was born in Marseille, France, in the working class neighborhood on August 17, 1901. His father Xavier Tomasi and mother Josephine Vincensi were originally from La Casinca, Corsica...
.
He performs with orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the New York Solisti, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony
Oregon Symphony
The Oregon Symphony is an American orchestra based in Portland, Oregon. Founded as the Portland Symphony Society in 1896, it is the sixth oldest orchestra in the United States, and oldest in the Western United States...
, Cleveland Ballet
Cleveland Ballet
The Cleveland Ballet was founded in 1972 by Dennis Nahat and Ian Horvath as a dance school, the School of Cleveland Ballet. They subsequently recruited professional dancers who by 1975 were previewing performances around Cleveland. The company first performed at the Hanna Theatre November 16, 1976...
, Group for Contemporary Music, NEP Symphony, Wayne Chamber Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, and the Long Island Philharmonic
Long Island Philharmonic
The Long Island Philharmonic, based in Melville, New York was founded in 1979 by folk singer Harry Chapin, Maestro Christopher Keene, and a group of Long Island's major community and business leaders...
.
He has recorded three albums with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds, a CD of the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
with the Quintet of the Americas, plus recordings with the Saxophone Sinfonia, New York Solisti, Paul Winter Consort
Paul Winter Consort
The Paul Winter Consort is an American musical group, led by soprano saxophonist Paul Winter. Founded in 1967, the group mixes elements of jazz, classical music, world music, and the sounds of animals and nature. They are often classified as new age music or "ecological jazz", and their unique...
, North-South Consonance, and the New Sousa Band.
His two most recent recordings include an environmental-jazz CD of solo improvisation as well as the newly discovered saxophone concerto of the 19th century American composer Caryl Florio.
Teaching career
Cohen is currently on the faculties of the Manhattan School of MusicManhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
, Mason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers...
, William Paterson University
William Paterson University
William Paterson University is a comprehensive public institution located in Wayne, New Jersey serving nearly 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students through five colleges: , , , , and ....
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Montclair State University
Montclair State University
Montclair State University is a public research university located in the Upper Montclair section of Montclair, the Great Notch area of Little Falls, and Clifton, New Jersey. As of October 2009, there were 18,171 total enrolled students: 14,139 undergraduate students and 4,032 graduate students...
, and Queens College. He has previously taught at the Oberlin Conservatory.
In the 1980s he served on the staff of Lee Patrick
Lee Patrick (saxophonist)
Lee Patrick is an American saxophonist, saxophone teacher, scholar, arranger, and composer. He is the second of six children born to Robert J. and Sara Patrick.-Education:...
's Saxophone Institutes held at the University of Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
as a conductor and chamber music coach. He worked with Sigurd Raschèr
Sigurd Raschèr
Sigurd Manfred Raschèr was an American saxophonist of German birth. He became one of the most important figures in the development of the 20th century repertoire for the classical saxophone.-Career in Europe:...
at Raschèr's saxophone workshops in the 1990s.
Saxophone research
Cohen has published numerous articles on saxophone literature and history in such noted publications as Saxophone Journal, the Clarinet and Saxophone Society Magazine of Great Britain, The Grainger Society Journal, the Saxophone Symposium, The Instrumentalist, and CBDNA Notes. Since 1985 he has authored the "Vintage Saxophones Revisited" column in Saxophone Journal.He has rediscovered and performed lost saxophone literature, including solo works for saxophone and orchestra by Loeffler, Florio and Dahl, as well as rare chamber works by Grainger, Ornstein, Cowell, Siegmeister and Loeffler.
His album of unusual saxophones, "Paul Cohen's Vintage Saxophones Revisited: A tour of the early history of the saxophone," was recorded in 19__.
Cohen's publishing company, To the Fore Publishers, offers original, historical and contemporary saxophone works from a wide range of composers in addition to Cohen's own arrangements and settings for saxophone ensemble. His collection of songs and dances transcribed for saxophone quartet, The Renaissance Book, is published by Galaxy Music.