continued on page 54

Cohen had been looking for-
ward to having Metro Detroiters 
experience a January concert that 
featured his first commissioned 
piece, but the pandemic caused a 
postponement with the presenta-
tion now anticipated for spring. 
His piece was to be played by the 
award-winning Akropolis Reed 
Quintet in a program hosted by 
Pro Musica of Detroit. 
“I was completely overjoyed to 
have the privilege of writing for 
Akropolis,
” said Cohen, commis-
sioned by the Detroit Composers’ 
Project. “
Akropolis is one of the 
real superstars in the quintet 
world, where reed groups are 
kind of a new invention.
” 
While looking forward to the 
concert, Cohen gives special 
attention to nonprofit program-

ming communicated through a 
website he founded and directs 
with the participation of other 
Interlochen students. It’s called 
The NowBeat Project and pro-
motes a platform for young 
composers around the world to 
showcase their talents. 
“We’re trying to spread a 
wealth of experience by having 
teen mentors work with compos-
ers under age 16,
” said Cohen, 
aiming for a career that includes 
formal presentations of his pieces 
combined with university teach-
ing opportunities. 
Each young composer accepted 
into the program, as decided by 
Cohen and a teacher/adviser, sub-
mits a piece later mentored and 
played by Interlochen students 
in a virtual concert offered on 

YouTube. The program, in its sec-
ond year, has chosen 16 finalists 
for 2022.

A LOVE OF MUSIC
Cohen’s interest in music start-
ed when he was 6 years old as 
he enjoyed the results of taking 
piano lessons. When he was in 
sixth grade at Warner Middle 
School in Farmington Hills, the 
cello caught his attention with 
students being encouraged to play 
orchestral instruments. 
“They were playing music 
that was written recently, and 
I thought I could do it,
” he 
explained. “I started com-
posing in seventh grade and 
went to Summer Arts Camp at 
Interlochen in 2019, when I had 
my first formal instruction in 

composition. 
“
As soon as I came home that 
summer, I begged my parents to 
let me have a private teacher and 
then went on to the Interlochen 
Academy to finish high school 
after two years at North 
Farmington.
”
Cohen, the son of psychologist 
Dana Cohen and technology sales 
specialist/hobby guitarist Andrew 
Cohen, uses a cello gifted by a 
great-aunt, Californian Laurie 
Ordin, who had played harp and 
cello professionally.
“For the upcoming Pro Musica 
concert, I worked on a piece titled 
‘Limitation and Locomotion,
’ 
based expressly around the 
instruments and audience I was 
writing for. Because Pro Musica 
was going to put my piece first on 

FEBRUARY 3 • 2022 | 53

COURTESY OF JONAH COHEN

Jonah Cohen composes on the 
piano. FACING PAGE: Cohen 
started playing the cello in sixth 
grade.

