“I played for a very important musician in Brazil, and he told me that I had all the ingredients to become a professional,” he said.
Now Cohen is a renowned pianist performing in concerts around the world, including a performance with the music school’s Philharmonic Orchestra, which will perform at 8 p.m. today in the Musical Arts Center.
The concert will feature conductor Arthur Fagen and a piano solo by Cohen.
The concert’s repertoire includes Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18,” Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet: Overture-Fantasy” and Franz Liszt’s “Les préludes.”
Cohen will open the concert with a performance of the Rachmaninoff concerto.
After leaving engineering school, Cohen played violin and piano for the Rio de Janeiro Opera House Orchestra. He struggled to make a living for about five years, but when he won the 1972 Busoni International Competition in Italy, doors began to open for his career.
He moved to London and started to perform all over the world. Before moving to Bloomington, he was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He accepted a teaching position at IU in 2004.
He now divides his time between three full-time professions. In addition to teaching at IU, he plays in concerts and works as the director of a piano series in Portland called Portland Piano International.
Cohen said “Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18” is one of the most popular pieces in his piano repertoire.
“Rachmaninoff, for me, is an exception, because he was one of the last composers who could perform his own music that was a great pianist,” Cohen said.
The piano concerto is also one of the most difficult piano concertos, Cohen said.
The Jacobs School of Music has first class musicians in all departments, and the Philharmonic Orchestra features plenty of talent, Cohen said.
“It’s a privilege to be part of this school,” he said.
Cohen said he also appreciates that the concerts at the music school are free and open to the public.
Fagen, a professor of orchestral conducting in the music school, said the Philharmonic Orchestra is the most advanced orchestra of the five orchestras in the music school. The ensemble consists of only graduate students.
The beginning of the year is an exciting time for student musicians, because there is a tremendous amount of energy. The students have just finished summer vacation and are not yet experiencing the pressure of finals, Fagen said.
“There’s a special energy at the beginning of the season,” he said.
Fagen said the selection of music is exciting and accessible, making it a great concert for people unfamiliar with classical music.
Having a virtuoso such as Cohen perform a concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra is a good experience for the students, who are playing at a professional level themselves, Fagen said.
“I always think it sets an artistic example for students,” he said.
