Gilad Cohen

Gilad Cohen (b. 1980) is an active composer, performer, and theorist in various musical genres including concert music, rock, and music for theater. His music adapts features from a wide range of musical realms and explores intersections among them, bringing to his creative table the persistent rhythms of rock, the intricate textures of impressionism, the gloomy harmonies of grunge and metal, the jubilant rhythms of klezmer, the motionless landscapes of psychedelic rock, the agile melodies and scales of Arabic music, and the striking dissonances of 20th-century avant-garde.

Gilad has received commissions from Barlow Endowment, ASCAP, Chamber Music America, Concert Artists Guild, Parlance Chamber Concerts, Houston Arts Alliance, Tre Voci (Kim Kashkashian, Marina Piccinini and Sivan Magen), and Jerusalem Music Center, among others. His music was performed in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle-East by artists such as Decoda, Nash Ensemble of London, Exponential Ensemble, Brentano Quartet, Israeli Chamber Project, Mivos Quartet, PUBLIQuartet, principal players of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Budapest Festival Orchestra, pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Benjamin Hochman, and Spencer Myer, violinists Itamar Zorman and Miranda Cuckson, violist Paul Neubauer, and harpists Sivan Magen, Emmanuel Ceysson, Ina Zdorovetchi, and Charles Overton, and released on Albany Records, Naxos/Delos, and Navona Records. He is known for his compositions for harp (which include Trio for a Spry Clarinet, Weeping Cello and Ruminating Harp, Firefly Elegy, Doaa and Masa, Trailheads, and his 2023 harp concerto Saucerful of Memories), which are regularly performed around the world. Gilad’s notable awards include the Barlow Prize, the Israeli Prime Minister Award for Composers, and prizes from the American Liszt Society, Lin Yao Ji Music Foundation (China), Franz Josef Reinl Foundation (Austria), Lycia Guitar Days (Turkey), and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (USA), among others. His music for the stage includes the monodrama Dragon Mother for soprano and orchestra, the one-act musical Healthy Start, and music for various theater productions in the US and Israel including Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan, and Nissim Aloni’s Napoleon – Dead or Alive!. Current engagements include a trio for flute, viola and harp for Rosmarin Ensemble and Here We Stand, a piece for 2 rappers/singers and large ensemble that is inspired by African-American singer/activist Paul Robeson, which Gilad co-creates with lyricist/rapper Ronvé O’Daniel.

Gilad has played piano, bass guitar and guitar with various ensembles at venues in North America and Europe including Merkin Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space (New York) and Civic Centre (Ottawa, Canada). His research about the music of Pink Floyd has resulted in publications in books and academic journals, lectures in the US and Israel, and the first-ever academic conference devoted to the band that he produced in 2014 at Princeton University together with composer Dave Molk. An Associate Professor of Music at Ramapo College of New Jersey, Gilad holds a Ph.D. in Composition from Princeton University and is a graduate of Mannes School of Music, the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop. His teachers include Robert Cuckson, Steven Mackey, Paul Lansky, Michael Wolpe, and Ari Ben-Shabetai.