Composer, conductor, and author Arthur Cohn (1910-1998) was born in Philadelphia. He studied violin and composition at the Combs Conservatory of Music, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Julliard School. As an author, Cohn published two books on contemporary music, The Collector’s 20th-Century Music in the Western Hemisphere (1961) and 20th-Century Music in Europe (1965), which were considered the primary references for music in the 20th century. In 1981, he published Recorded Classical Music: A Critical Guide to Compositions and Performances, a book that won a Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers in 1982.
As a performer, Cohn founded the Dorian Quartet and the Stringart Quartet, and conducted the orchestra of the Symphony Club of Philadelphia and the Haddonfield Symphony Orchestra. Between 1938 and 1973, Cohn had 10 residencies at MacDowell, where he accomplished much of his writing and composing. His notable compositions include: Music for Ancient Instruments (1939), Kaddish (1964), Machine Music (1937), and Quotations in Percussion (1958).
