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.