arts&life

music

A Life In

Music

Clarinetist Franklin Cohen

has created a life that

blends friends, family,

travel — and music.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

F

details

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit concert starts at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 13,
at the Seligman Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills. $16-$64. A pre-concert talk begins
at 6:45 p.m. (313) 426-3450; chambermusicdetroit.org.

riends and family intertwine within the
music career of clarinetist Franklin Cohen.
A local audience will get to experience the
friendship during the final concert of the 2016-
2017 season of the Chamber Music Society of
Detroit (CMSD). The program will offer a reunion
of sorts as Cohen performs one of three Brahms
selections with long-known members of the
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.
“This is a bunch of good friends getting
together, and it will be lots of fun,” says Cohen, co-
artistic music director of ChamberFest Cleveland
and principal clarinet emeritus of the Cleveland
Orchestra.
“I have known Jaime Laredo and Sharon
Robinson for many years; we met when we were
kids, practically. Joseph Kalichstein and I were
in school together — so this is going to be a very
special treat.”
Cohen has also played with Robinson over the
last few years, as well as Laredo although he’s not
involved with the piece Cohen will be playing.
Richard King, also associated with the
Cleveland Orchestra, will be heard on the French
horn in the program that includes Trio for Piano,
Clarinet and Cello in A minor; Trio for Piano, Violin
and French Horn in E-flat major; and Trio for
Piano, Violin and Cello No. 2 in C major.
“The piece I’ll be playing is from Brahms’ most
introspective and beautiful period, and it’s a privi-
lege to play that,” Cohen explains. “He wrote these
pieces late in his career.
“After deciding to retire, Brahms heard clarinet-
ist Richard Muhlfeld, who inspired him to write
four major pieces for clarinet in different combi-
nations.”
Cohen, who has performed once before for
the CMSD, also feels a special relationship with
instrumental instructors in Michigan. While
growing up in New York, he spent two summers
at Interlochen during his high school years. As a
professional, he has given master classes at the
winter academy on invitations from two of his
students who went on to teach.

continued on page 45

jn

May 4 • 2017

41