Name: Jonathan Cohen
City, State of Residence: Glenwood, MD
Occupation: Electrical Engineer
Favorite Instrument to Play: Contrabass Flute
The following biography is from Jonathan’s website, FluteComposer.com:
Jonathan Cohen’s business card says “Bald Technical Guy.”
Jon was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1954. After passing through Palo Alto, California and undergraduate school in Akron, Ohio, he settled in Maryland, where he received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Jon has worked as a researcher in information retrieval and visualization, optical and signal processing, and related fields, for more than 40 years. His resulting trophies include more than a dozen patents and a bald head.
Confined to his house for several snow days in 2003, Jon began to compose, and has resisted all calls to desist. Four times his odd children have been winners of the National Flute Association (NFA) Newly Composed Music Competition.
Jon plays C flute in the Montgomery Village Community Band (MVCB), and Tiny, his contrabass flute, in Flutes on the Brink, Flute Cocktail, and Two Redheads and a Deadhead, from which he draws far too much encouragement.
Jon continues his dubious contributions to science as he composes and plays. His compositions are published by Falls House Press/Theodore Presser, ALRY Publications, ScoreVivo.com, Tetractys Publishing, and Nourse Wind Publications.
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Village Virtuoso: Over the years, you’ve made a name for yourself with your original compositions for flute choirs of various sizes. Where do you get your inspiration for these pieces? Do any of these inspiring stories stick out in your memory?
Jonathan Cohen: It varies. In some cases, a catchy rhythm or bass line comes to mind and I build from that. At times, I am supposed to be practicing, and instead I pull out a manuscript notebook, play a few notes, write them down, play a few more, and so on, until I have a theme; I then build a piece around that (and it’s more fun than practicing). I often suddenly become conscious that I have been composing a piece in my head, perhaps humming it, and realize that for the past twenty minutes I’ve been making up variations on something in the style of some piece I had heard earlier, perhaps on the car radio. As a child I was told that I was constantly humming.
VV: Your titles are often memorable because of their fun, vibrant quality, and they give us a peek into your love of puns. How do you come up with these titles?
JC: Yes, I want titles to be fun and memorable. Part of the point is that music is fun, and we can be both serious about wanting to play our best and still laugh at ourselves. Part of the joke is on me: I like my music, and care a lot about it, but I know I’m no George Gershwin. As to the titles: some come immediately, others take a bit of work. I want to have titles that are unique to me, and I am often disappointed. I’ll think, “This will be good and novel!” Then I’ll Google it and find that it is already attached to two pieces of music, is someone’s Twitter handle, and is the name of a club in L.A.
VV: You have written pieces for specific ensembles or occasions. Do you find it easier or harder than composing with no external agenda? Are there any limitations when working on these requests or commissions?
JC: In some ways, I find it harder, though most groups give me great freedom. Some of the requests are constrained in funny ways. I was asked to write a piece for a festival opening concert and told it had to be four minutes long. Also, they needed a title quickly—and how about a Latin piece? So I announced it was a tango and made up the title right there before having even a shred of the music in mind. When pieces are written for national or international conventions, the programs have to be specified as much as nearly a year in advance. So it is not uncommon to be asked for a title and piece duration very early in the process.
VV: Is there anything about composing for amateur ensembles that is different from what you expected?
JC: I don’t know that I had expectations. The surprise is that I am writing for anyone at all, let alone that it includes both professional and amateur groups. None of this was on the radar when I came stumbling into it.
VV: Anything else you want to tell us about community flute ensembles, from a composer’s perspective?
JC: I have found the flute community to be a wonderful, welcoming place. And for the most part, there doesn’t seem to be a sharp line between the professional world and the amateur one. The professionals mix with the dedicated amateurs, not only providing encouragement and instruction, but engaging in genuine bidirectional sharing of joy and energy and communication. So while there is a huge range of skill levels and experience, the whole seems to be a healthy continuum that embraces the concert hall, the classroom, the national and international conventions, and the local flute choirs. That also poses the challenge to write music that can be performed and appreciated by a range of skill levels. Being in the midst of it all is a heady, glorious experience.
Coda: Six of Jon’s pieces will be performed this summer (2018) at the National Flute Association’s Annual Convention, including two premieres.
Below: a snapshot of most of the composer’s published music taken during a recent (and largely unsuccessful) fit of organization.
