D a
n C o o p e
r
Composer Dan Cooper was born in 1970 in Manhattan. He
began playing the flute at age seven, and the bass guitar at
age twelve. As a teenager, he played in various clubs around
New York, such as CBGB's, and SNAFU. He attended the Horace
Mann School, and then Columbia College, where he completed
his B.A. with a double major in music and English. While an
undergraduate, Cooper was awarded a Dean's Discretionary
Fund Grant for his multimedia work "spring triptych", based
on poetry of e.e. cummings. He studied music composition
with Jeff Nichols and Joe Dubiel, computer music with Brad
Garton, and flute with Mindy Kaufman of the New York
Philharmonic.
From there, Cooper worked for several years as music
assistant and secretary to nonagenarian American composer,
conductor, flutist, and electronic music pioneer Otto
Luening, who mentored him in composition, orchestration, and
musical life in general. With Luening's recommendation,
Cooper was awarded an ASCAP Young Composer's Prize for his
electronic setting of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". In
1994, Cooper received a scholarship to the New England
Conservatory, where he won the Honors Ensembles Competition
for his "Brass Quintet", and studied primarily with
composer, conductor, and flutist John Heiss. In 1996, Cooper
received the Master of Music degree with both academic
honors and distinction in performance.
Cooper also completed study at the Conservatoire de
Nice and Fontainebleau, where he attended masterclasses of
Betsy Jolas and Philippe Manoury, and won a composition
prize. In June, 1999, Cooper was enrolled in a composition
seminar with Philip Glass at the Scotia Festival of Music.
Cooper was a founding member, songwriter, 7-string bass
guitarist, and flutist for the group Skizm, which won the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences first annual
Grammy Showcase in 1996, and which was represented by
Columbia Artists Management from 1997-99. He has been
published in The New York Times Op-ed, and Modern Musician
Monthly.
In 1996, Cooper enrolled on full fellowship for a PhD
at Princeton University, where he studied composition with
Paul Lansky, Steve Mackey, and Barbara White. At Princeton,
Cooper taught undergraduate courses in twentieth-century
American music, and was enrolled in Toni Morrison's
interdisciplinary "Atelier". In April 1998, The New Jersey
Symphony gave a reading of his song "The Millennium,"
(1996-97,) which won a certificate of achievement from the
New York Youth Symphony's First Music 16 in early '99. In
May of that year, Steve Mackey conducted the premieres of
two more orchestra songs at Princeton: "Ozymandias" and
"Design". Imani Winds premiered Cooper's "Wind Quintet", and
Cooper received a commission from the Cary Trust: to compose
a solo flute "Suite" for the Otto Luening centennial concert
at Miller Theater. For this concert, Cooper also transcribed
Luening's 1952 Nocturnes, originally for flute on tape
recorder, in a new score for flute and 'live'
electronics.
In the summer of 2000, Cooper received a composition
fellowship from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music to
Tanglewood, where he studied primarily with Michael Gandolfi
and Osvaldo Golijov. At Ozawa Hall, conductor Stefan Asbury
led a reading of Cooper's orchestra music, flutist Alicia
DiDonato recorded Cooper's "Suite", and pianist Elena Baksht
performed a solo version of "The Millennium". Since 2000,
Cooper has composed and produced at Tanglewood incidental
music for several acclaimed Shakespeare & Company
productions: "The Winter's Tale", "Coriolanus", "King Lear",
and
"A
Midsummer Night's Dream", directed by Tina Packer. In
2001, Cooper also assisted Dutch composer Louis Andriessen
on a collaboration between Tanglewood and Jacob's
Pillow.
From 2000 to 2002, Cooper performed in some fifty
cities internationally on tour with Decca recording artist
Ute Lemper. As a multi-instrumentalist in the group, Cooper
played 7-string bass guitar, electric upright bass, and
flute with electronics at many renowned halls, including New
York's Town Hall, San Francisco's Davies Hall, London's
Royal Albert Hall, Tokyo's Orchard Hall, Berlin Philharmonic
Hall, and the Sydney Opera House, (2000 Olympics Arts
Festival,) among others, with various excerpts broadcast on
NBC, CNN, Radio France, RAI, and Bravo. Cooper endorses
Overwater bass guitars of Carlisle, UK.
In 2002, Cooper performed his setting of "Ozymandias"
with the New York New Music Ensemble at the June-in-Buffalo
festival, and also led a music workshop for children at the
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, with musicians from the
Philharmonia Orchestra of London. In 2003, Cooper received a
grant from Meet-the-Composer for a performance of his
"String Quartet" on the Composers Concordance series, and
was an Artist-in-Residence at Engine 27, the multi-channel
sound performance space in Tribeca. In addition, the
Circadia ensemble commissioned and premiered Cooper's
setting of Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and the Turtle",
Palisades Virtuosi commissioned and premiered a new "Trio",
and the Albany Symphony Orchestra/Dogs of Desire, conducted
by David Alan Miller, recorded Cooper's work "The Mass
Inertia".
In March 2004, Cooper performed as soloist in the
premiere of his
"Concertino
for 7-string Bass Guitar", commissioned by the Albany
Symphony. Cooper's score "So Calamari", transcribed for
flute quartet, won a composition competition for a
performance at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, presented
by Artists International. In the fall of '04, Cooper's
"Hawthorne Fanfare and Meditation" for brass quintet.
percussion, and electronics was premiered at Tanglewood's
Ozawa Hall, as part of a Nathaniel
Hawthorne Bicentennial event produced by Gordon Hyatt,
directed by Tina Packer, and hosted by Mike Wallace, with
readings by Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei, and David
Strathairn.
Since 2002, Cooper has been on the faculty of the
State University of New York/FIT, where he teaches courses
in European classical music and American music from 1750 to
the present. Currently, Cooper is completing an orchestra
score on commission from the Empire State Youth Orchestra
for their 25th season.
email:
dcooper@princeton.edu
links:
Aaron
Copland Fund for Music
Albany
Symphony Orchestra
Alicia
DiDonato
American Music
Center
Arthur
Kampela
ASCAP
Barbara
White
Betsy
Jolas
Bruno
Fontaine
Circadia
Columbia
University Computer Music Center
Conservatoire
National de Région de Nice
Dan
Trueman
Dave
Soldier
David
Shohl
Derek
Bermel
Engine
27
Florian
Maier
Fontainebleau
Frank
Heiss
Gloria
Coates
Evan
Hause
Horace Mann
School
Imani
Winds
Jack
Beeson
Jeff
Song
June
in Buffalo
John
Harbison
John
Heiss
Lee
Hyla
Louis
Andriessen
Margaret
Lancaster
Marko
Ahtisaari
Mauro
Refosco
Meet
the Composer
Michael
Gandolfi
Michael
Leonhart
Minimum
Security Composers Collective
New
England Conservatory
New York New Music
Ensemble
Nick
Cooper
Oscar
Bettison
Osvaldo
Golijov
Otto
Luening
Overwater
Basses
Palisades
Virtuosi
Paul
Lansky
Perry
Cook
Philip
Glass
Philippe
Manoury
Princeton
Atelier
Princeton
Music Department
Robert
Dick
Robin
de Raaff
Scotia
Festival of Music
Shakespeare
& Company
State
University of New York/FIT
Steve
Mackey
Tanglewood
Music Center
Trevor
James Flutes
Ute
Lemper
