James Cohn was born in 1928 in Newark, New Jersey, and took violin and piano lessons there. Later he studied composition with Roy Harris, Wayne Barlow and Bernard Wagenaar, and majored in Composition at the Juilliard School, graduating in 1950. He has lived and worked for many years in New York City. He was initiated into Sigma Alpha Iota (International Music Fraternity) as a National Arts Associate in 1998, by the Tulsa Oklahoma Alumnae Chapter and is now a member of the New York Alumnae Chapter.
Cohn has written solo, chamber, choral and orchestral works, and his catalog includes three string quartets, five piano sonatas and eight symphonies. Some have won awards, including a Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Prize for his Symphony No. 2 and an A.I.D.E.M. prize for his Symphony No. 4 (given its première in Florence at the Maggio Musicale). Paul Paray and the Detroit Symphony introduced the composer’s Symphony No. 3 and Variations on ‘The Wayfaring Stranger’, and his opera The Fall of the City received its première in Athens, Ohio, after winning the Ohio University Opera Award.
He has had many performances of his choral and chamber music, and worldwide use of his music commissioned for television and cinema. His most recently completed orchestral works are the Violin Concerto, commissioned by the American violinist Eric Grossman, and the Piano Concerto, as well as a new piano piece, both commissioned by the internationally renowned Argentine pianist Mirian Conti. Another recent commission is for Three Bon-Bons for the New York Treble Singers. His most recent chamber music works are The Grecian Festival, commissioned by the Laurel Ensemble of California, the Trio No. 2 for Piano, Violin and Cello, commissioned by Sigma Alpha Iota and given its world première at Sigma Alpha Iota’s annual Convention in the summer of 2006 at Orlando, Florida, Three Dances for Clarinet and Guitar, commissioned by Raphael Sanders and David Galvez, Toccata and Fugue for David Galvez, guitarist, Duo for Clarinet & Violin, commissioned by Julianne Kirk and Adda Kridler, Mozart Fantasy and Fiesta Latina, both commissioned by the wind quintet, the Quintet of the Americas. Commissions for other works have come from The McKim Fund in the Library of Congress (for the Concerto da camera for violin, piano and wind quintet), Pennsylvania’s ‘Music At Gretna’ festival (for the Mount Gretna Suite, for chamber orchestra), Jon Manasse (for the Concerto No. 1 for Clarinet and Strings), Christopher Jepperson (for Three Evocations [Clarinet Concerto No. 2]), Jeffrey Silberchlag (for the Concerto for Trumpet and Strings) and Claribel (the Belgian 30-piece clarinet ensemble) (for the three-movement suite Caprice).
Web: http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.559376&catNum=559376&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English