Composer Gerald Cohen is a celebrated writer of opera, chamber, choral, and liturgical music. His opera, Steal a Pencil for Me, based on a true concentration camp love story, had its world premiere production by Opera Colorado in January 2018. His operas Sarah and Hagar, based on the story from the book of Genesis, and Seed, a one-act opera about love and choices for a post-apocalyptic couple, have been performed in concert form. Cohen is also a noted synagogue cantor and baritone and his best-known work, Psalm 23, has been performed in thousands of synagogues and churches, as well as at Carnegie Hall and the Vatican. His other instrumental compositions include Voyagers, a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Voyager spacecraft, and Playing for our lives, a tribute to the music and musicians of the WWII Terezin concentration camp near Prague.
Cohen’s work has been recognized by many awards and grants from the Copland House Borromeo String Quartet Award and Hoff-Barthelson/Copland House commission, Westchester Prize for New Work, American Composers Forum Faith Partners residency and more. He also received Yale University’s Sudler Prize for outstanding achievement in the creative arts and has been awarded commissioning grants from Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Westchester Arts Council. Throughout his career, Cohen has been selected for residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Copland House, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and American Lyric Theater. He received a bachelor’s in music from Yale University and a D.M.A. in composition from Columbia University.
