Biography
(A shortened biography, suitable for printing in concert programs, is available from the "Home" page of this site.)
Hailed by Music & Vision Magazine as "one of the most versatile and active musicians of our time", Carson Cooman is an American composer with a catalogue of musical works in many forms, ranging from solo instrumental works to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. Cooman's music has been performed on all six inhabited continents. His music appears on over twenty-five recordings, including five complete CDs on the Naxos and Zimbel labels.
"[a composer] writing big pieces that sound terrific" — American Record Guide
"...a shining new example of what is often described as 'serious art music' that is expected to challenge and inspire both listeners and performers alike." — The Horn Call
" ...composer of extraordinary energy and fecundity of imagination" — Records International
" ...music of great interest, contrast, intellectual stimulation, and depth. This is music well worth knowing." — The American Organist
"Cooman has something to say, an engaging voice to do so, and real musical chops." — Fanfare Magazine
"passionate and attractive" — Charleston Post and Courier
Cooman's music is published primarily by MMB Music, Inc. and Musik Fabrik (orchestral/instrumental music) and Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc. (organ/choral music)
Various other works are published by:
Conners Publications (Natchitoches, LA)
Selah Publishing Co., Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA)
National Music Publishers (Tustin, CA)
St. James Music Press (Hopkinsville, KY)
Hope Publishing Company (Carol Stream, IL)
Zimbel Press/excl. distributor Subito Music Corporation (Verona, NJ)
Parsonage Press/excl. distributor Subito Music Corporation (Verona, NJ)
Amber Waves Music Publishing (Roeland Park, KS)
Treble Clef Music Press (Chapel Hill, NC)
Wehr's Music House (Winter Park, FL)
Publications may be ordered from your favorite music dealer or directly from the publishers. Cooman's music is also available on loan from numerous music libraries around the world.
Cooman has also been the recipient of numerous commissions from performers, ensembles, orchestras, and organizations. Organizations who have commissioned works from or premiered works by Cooman include the American Guild of Organists, Anton Leopold Musicians, the Aspen Music Festival, the Association of Anglican Musicians, the Broeker Fund for New Music, the Bulgarian Music Festival, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, Choral Arts New England, The Commission Project, Composers Concordance, Dance Rochester, The Fanfare Project, Friends of the Albany City Carillon, the Great Lakes Arts Festival, Harvard University, the Hochstein Music School, the Hodges Fund, the International Contrabassoon Festival, the International Tuba/Euphonium Conference, Kilgore College, King's Chapel, Lakehead University, the Laubach Organ Festival, the Living Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, Music Premieres of the Season (Kyiv), New Directions, the New York State Council for the Arts and Culture, the Northern Lights Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Richner-Strong Institute of Church Music, the Royal School of Church Music in America, the Schoenberg Concert Society, the St. Petersburg (Russia) Society of Dentists, University of the South, the Werner Foundation, WHRB Radio, the Williamson Glen Chamber Music Festival, and the World Saxophone Congress.
Ensembles and orchestras include Albany Pro Musica, the Arcadian Winds, AUROS Group for New Music, the Austin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Aradia Duet, the Bach Society Orchestra, the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, the Callithumpian Consort, the Corona Guitar Kvartet, the Chicago Brass Choir, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, the Czech Radio Symphony, Duo46, Duo Ahlert and Schwab, Duo Majoya, Ensemble Decadanse, the Equinox Symphony Orchestra, the Experimental Theatre of the Black Forest, eXindigo, the Ferla-Marcinizyn Guitar Duo, Fireworks, the Gough Duo, the Harvard University Choir, the Heim Duo, hrCME, the Irondequoit Chorale, the Kiev Philharmonic, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, the LAGO Flute Quartet, the London Chamber Group, the Luminary Brass Quintet, Madrigalia, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Non Sequitur, the Orenunn Trio, the Penfield Symphony Trio, the Radcliffe Choral Society, opera company The Repellent Players, Rhythm and Brass, the River City Brass Band, the Rosetta Trio, the Serafino Trio, the Serenade Chamber Orchestra, the Singing Girls of Texas, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Mandolins, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Tubalaté, the Varna (Bulgaria) Philharmonic Orchestra, and the William Baker Festival Singers.
Solo performers include pianists Donna Amato, Peter Blauvelt, Stephen Drury, Jeffrey Jacob, Keith Kirchoff, Jonathan Hugh Lovell, Nathanael May, Moyuru Maeda, Walter Morales, Judith Olson, Gordon Rumson, Nora Skuta, Kathleen Supové, Stephen Truelove, and Paul Woodring, organists Paul Ayres, Pamela Decker, Emma Lou Diemer, Peter DuBois, Alfred V. Fedak, Marnie Giesbrecht, Nancy Granert, Harry Lyn Huff, Andrew Paul Holman, Daniel Pinkham, and Murray Forbes Somerville, harpsichordist Ewa Gabrys, violinists Sabrina Berger, Curtis Macomber, Robert Mealy, Ostap Shutko, and Piotr Szewczyk, cellists Craig Hultgren, Larry Kludge, Olga Kryvtsova, and Lisa Truelove, contrabassists Stephen Gilewski and P. Kellach Waddle, contrabassoonists Jeanne Coonan and Henry Skolnick, guitarists Herbert Levine and Karin Schaupp, hornists John Paul Aubrey, Hazel Dean Davis, Andrew Pelletier, and James Sommerville, oboists Marina Slotmaf, G. L. Menendez, and Tedrow Perkins, flutists Laurel Ann Maurer, Sally Turner, and Dolores Zdancewicz, saxophonists Jay C. Easton, Lara James, Andreas van Zoelen, and Paul Wehage, clarinetists Westhard Gerber and Cheryl Melfi, recorderist John Turner, trumpeters Bruce Briney, Chris Gekker, Michael Stewart, and John Wallace, trombonist Haim Avitsur, euphoniumist Matthew Murchison, tubist Mark Nelson, and conductors Michael Adelson, Denis Colwell, Edward Elwyn Jones, Kevin Leong, Jeff Manookian, Vit Micka, Sean O'Boyle, Daniel Pinkham, Bruce Polay, Michael Shahani, Nancy Petersen Strelau, Paul Stuart, Kirk Trevor, Vladimir Valek, and Robert Ian Winstin.
Cooman has collaborated with a number of poets, librettists, and text authors including Mary Louise Bringle, John Core, Richard Leach, Elizabeth Kirschner, Randy Northrup, Joyce Carol Oates, Andrew Pratt, Mark Schweizer, Calvin Seerveld, Derek Strahan, John Thornburg, Kathleen Wakefield, Rae E. Whitney, Anna Winslow, and Brian Wren.
Cooman's musicology studies and writings have been focused primarily on the music of contemporary American and Australian composers. He is the current editor of Living Music Journal. He serves as a contemporary music reviewer for the internationally distributed American Recorder magazine. He has served as editor for a number of publications of organ works by other composers for various publishers around the world. Cooman is currently joint series editor (along with Al Benner) of the Hymn Preludes for Organ series from Conners Publications and is music and hymnology editor for Zimbel Press.
Cooman's principal composition teachers were Bernard Rands, Judith Weir, Alan Fletcher, and James Willey. His "grandparent" teachers (teachers of his teachers) thus include Luciano Berio, John Tavener, Roger Sessions, and Howard Hanson. The diversity that this list represents is reflected in Cooman's own work. He has also studied with Leonardo Balada, George Tsontakis, Eric Chasalow, Barry Conyngham, and Elliott Gyger.
He has received ASCAP Standard Awards annually since 1997 and has received various other awards and prizes for his work. Cooman served as guest composer for the RASPTA Piano Festival in 1999, 2004, and 2006; he was also a guest composer at the De Nacht music festival at the Brabants Conservatorium, Tilburg, Netherlands. He has also appeared in residencies and lectures at a number of churches and colleges throughout the USA.
Cooman is an active organist who performs frequently, playing his own works and the works of other contemporary composers. Cooman has actively promoted and supported the ongoing development of new music for organ and piano by contemporary composers. He has arranged performances and been involved with new works of numerous contemporary composers. A large number of contemporary composers have written new works for him. See the Other Composers page for a full listing. As a performer, Cooman has recorded for ASV, JADE Records, MP3 Music, and Zimbel Records.
Cooman is a member of the American Guild of Organists, the Living Music Foundation, the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), and a Life Member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.