Robert S. Cohen has written music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, dance and theatre. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and commissions, including a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, an American Music Center grant, a Meet the Composer Award, a Richard Rodgers Award, several ASCAP awards and was the unanimously selected winner of the 2008 New York Composer’s Circle Award.
His Alzheimer’s Stories for chorus and large ensemble, a commission from the Susquehanna Valley Chorale, will receive its premiere fall 2009. Sing with Me for chorus, piano, percussion and synthesizer, a 2008 commission by the Pro Arte Chorale and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, received its world premiere March, 2009; Homeland Security Suite for percussion received its world premiere at Ithaca College in November 2007 and is published by HoneyRock Music; Of Eternity Considered as a Closed System for soloists, chorus and orchestra based on seven poems by the late Rochester poet Hyam Plutzik, was premiered February 5, 2007 at Carnegie Hall by the Pro Arte Chorale and Westfield Symphony as part of a concert sponsored by the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation entitled “Partners of Hope and at the Bulgarian National Opera in Sofia, Bulgaria; His Music-Theatre work Edison Invents for Baritone and Orchestra, a commission from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation was premiered by the Westfield Symphony in spring, 2005. Other works include a ballet for Percussion entitled Tiktaalik, premiered in 2007 as part of Kean University’s Ars Vitalis series in association with the NJ Dance Theatre Ensemble; Sprig of Lilac, performed by the Connecticut Choral Artists (CONCORA) and released on CD by the St. Martin’s Chamber Choir of Denver, Colorado; Peter Quince at the Clavier (CONCORA, Bel Canto and the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble); and Three Spirituals, commissioned by the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music was premiered in 2005 at New York’s Ethical Culture Society and has received numerous performances throughout the U.S. Most recently, Creation and Noah for soloists, chorus, brass & percussion with a libretto by Maria V.S. Seigenthaler was performed by the Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale both at Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia’s Irvine Auditorium. Other works include: String Quartet #2 (A Day in the Life), Ode to a Toad; Ho Hosanna; The Serenity Prayer; a work for children’s choir entitled My New York (commissioned by the Children’s Aid Society Chorus); The Mysterious Transformation of Johann B for clarinet and percussion and An Ant’s World for Marimba (4 hands) published by HoneyRock Music.
Bob 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 a graduate of Brown University, Queens College and post-graduate work at Columbia University. He lives in Montclair, NJ with his wife Maryann and two cats Fred & Ginger.