Biography

Robert S. Cohen | composer

choral

orchestral

music theater

wind ensemble

chamber ensemble

percussion ensemble

Biography

ROBERT S. COHEN has written music for chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, dance and theatre and has been the recipient of numerous awards including a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, an American Music Center Grant, a Meet the Composer Award, Composers Guild of New Jersey Award, New York Composer’s Circle Award, Harrisburg Gay men’s Choir Award, Hong Kong Children’s Choir International Competition, Susquehanna Valley Chorale Commission, Deer Creek Chorale Commission, New England String Quartet International Composition Competition, several commissions from the Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale and grants from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. His works have been performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, Berlin’s Kammermusiksaal, the Kimmel Center, Symphony Space, Bargemusic, the Sofia Opera House, Melbourne Concert Hall and the Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts. Alzheimer’s Stories for soloists, chorus, and large ensemble, with a libretto by Grammy winning librettist Herschel Garfein, is one of the most performed large-scale choral works in the U.S and was the featured work at the 2019 ACDA National Conference.

Other major works include Genesis for soloists, chorus, brass & percussion written with collaborator Ronald W. Cadmus, Eternity Considered as a Closed System for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Edison Invents for baritone and orchestra, Do Not Enter for tuba & piano, which was recently performed in an orchestrated version by the U.S. Army Band in Washington, D.C., Neptune’s Treasures for brass quintet recorded by Australia’s Lyrebird Brass, Calder’s Circus & Under Blood Moon for woodwind quintet a string quartet, Five Nights in Sofia for violin & piano, a song cycle Parable, So You Think I’m Funny for bassoon & piano and a number of works for percussion including Galapagos Suite, An Ant’s World and Homeland Security Suite. His extensive catalog of choral works includes: Sleep, Little Baby, Sleep, Stardate 101, The Promise of Three Moments, Stay in Time, God’s Whisper, The Joy of Simple Things, Ain’t I A Woman, Still, The Joy of Simple Things, The Road Back, The Beauty of Life, Night Cadence, Sprig of Lilac and Spirit of the Winding Water. He is published by SBMP, Edition Peters, Hal Leonard, Shawnee Press, Pavane Publishing, Fred Bock Music, Lorenz Music Publishing, HoneyRock Music, Potenza Music, Peer Music Classical, and J.W. Pepper.

Bob also co-authored the book and composed the score for the 2000 Richard Rodgers award winning Off-Broadway musical Suburb published by Dramatic Publishing. He is also Treasurer and Board member of the New York Composers Circle. He has a B.A. in Music from Brown University, where he studied with composer Ron Nelson; an M.A. in Music from Queens College and was in the doctoral program at Columbia University. He currently lives in Montclair, NJ with his with his wife, Maryann and two cats Daphne & Chloe.