Stephen Cohn

Early life

Cohn was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father was an attorney who wrote chamber music as a hobby as his mother was a dancer and violinist and his sister a flutist. He 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.

Career

Stephen's first public work came courtesy of the mid-1960s folk quartet The Pleasure Fair, also featuring guitarist and songwriter Robb Royer. The group released their first single in 1966 under the name of The Rainy Day People, before becoming The Pleasure Fair and issuing a self-titled LP the following year. In 1973, he 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. 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. The same work is part of an At Peace Media CD release which won at Parents' Choice Gold Award in 2003. 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.

He won 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.

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.

He received 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.

Performances

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

Film and television scores

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