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Nell Shaw Cohen (b. 1988) was born in San Francisco and raised in California and New York. Ms. Cohen currently studies at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA under the tutelage of Michael Gandolfi. She has particular interest in music for voices and small chamber ensembles. She has recently begun composing orchestral music, and plans to move into opera in the coming years.
Before shifting her focus to chamber music, Ms. Cohen developed proficiency performing and composing classically-influenced progressive rock music (singing and playing guitar, bass, keyboard and drums), largely self-taught. In 2006 she produced an original album titled "Tempus" (under the name Nell James). It received favorable reviews in the U.S. and abroad. For more information on "Tempus" and other past recordings, visit http://nelljames.com.
Ms. Cohen is the recipient of the IAWM Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize (2009), NEC's Francis Judd Cooke Scholarship for Students of Composition (2008-2012), and the Elizabeth Brockman Award (2008), and is a featured artist of the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation. She has participated in master classes with John Harbison, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and Geoffrey Simon.
This website features recordings and scores of recent compositions. Contact Ms. Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com with questions and comments.
** News **
May 28, 2009 - Today I was featured in the East Hampton Star. Read the article here.
May 17, 2009 - I just received the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize from the International Alliance for Women in Music. The winning piece was my song "Forming Desires", for contralto, clarinet, horn and cello, a setting of poetry by Muhammad Iqbal (see below for info/mp3). I am thrilled to have received this honor!
April 21, 2009 - "To Create One's Own World" had a lovely premiere in Brown Hall at New England Conservatory. See below for mp3. This was my seventh and final performance on the 2008-2009 Tuesday Night New Music season!
April 17, 2009 - My orchestral tone poem "From the Faraway Nearby", along with another piece that is currently in-progress, was read and recorded by a student orchestra with conductor John Page. See below for mp3.
March 31, 2009 - "Revealed in Stone" premiered in Williams Hall at New England Conservatory. See below for mp3s.
March 10, 2009 - "Nine Muses" premiered in Williams Hall at New England Conservatory. See below for mp3s.
February 24, 2009 - "The Course of Empire" premiered in Brown Hall at New England Conservatory. See below for mp3s.
February 2, 2009 - Songs for baritone and piano premiered in Williams Hall at New England Conservatory. See below for mp3s.
November 25, 2008 - "The Promise" premiered in Williams Hall at New England Conservatory. See below for mp3.
October 2008 - "Forming Desires", my art song for alto, clarinet, horn and cello, was premiered on October 28th as part of the Tuesday Night New Music concert at New England Conservatory - hopefully the first of many successful performances at NEC! See below for more details on the piece.
June 2008 - I have been added to the artist roster of the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation, an international charitable organization that supports "emerging artists of exceptional talent". I was selected by Swiss Global after having presented recordings of my music at their 4th Annual Playhouse Project master class and benefit concert, for which I was awarded the Elizabeth Brockman Award in composition.
The Playhouse Project benefit concert was covered in the Southampton Press. Read the full article online. The Press wrote that: "["Time-Lapse" and "Memory"] are "both melodious and thoughtfully constructed works that impressed with their maturity."
An orchestral tone poem inspired by the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe. Program note forthcoming. |
New England Conservatory Philharmonia with John Page, conductor |
From the Faraway Nearby - Composed February-March 2009
Read April 17, 2009 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA
A song based on selected quotations from painter Georgia O'Keeffe. Read the program note. |
Rachel Holmes, Soprano (Students at New England Conservatory.) |
Composed April 2009
Premiered April 21, 2009 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA
(L-R: Nell with the ensemble)
A song cycle of poems by Michelangelo. Read the program note. |
Mxolisi Duda, Tenor (Students at New England Conservatory.) |
Composed January 2009
Premiered March 31, 2009 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA
(L-R: Mxolisi Duda, Nell, Patricia Au)
For flute For harp For violin (Total running time: ca. 13.5 mins) Three sets of miniatures for solo instruments inspired by the Greek Muses. Read the program note. |
Anne Gregory, Flute (Students at New England Conservatory.) |
Composed February 2009
Premiered March 10th, 2009 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA
(L-R: Nell with Anne Gregory and Maria Rindello Parker; Audrey Wright not pictured)
A string quartet inspired by Thomas Cole's cycle of paintings by the same name. Read the program note and see the paintings with the music. |
Tetrachord (Honors Ensemble at New England Conservatory.) |
Composed November-December 2008
Premiered February 24th, 2009 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA
(L-R: Jennifer Wey, David Meyer, Nell, Quan Yuan, Matt Davies)
Art songs settings of Rumi and Walt Whitman. Read the program note. |
Chad Flynn, Baritone (Students at New England Conservatory.) |
Composed November-December 2008
Premiered February 2nd, 2009 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA
(L-R: Patricia Au, Nell, Chad Flynn)
I chose the combination of trumpet and string quartet for a lush semi-orchestral feeling, reminiscent of the string and brass-oriented textures in an early Baroque orchestra. The first section features call-and-answer echoes between the trumpet and the violins, one of which plays offstage (a reference to Monteverdi). Each of the instruments stay primarily within their low and middle ranges for a warm, centered timbre. The exact meaning of the piece is intended to be open-ended, but it is a general expression of hope and determination; a promise that one makes to others, and to oneself. |
Diana Wensley, Trumpet in Bb (Students at New England Conservatory.) |
Composed Feburary-March 2008
Premiered November 25th, 2008 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA
(L-R: Ginevra Ventre, Jennifer Wey, Nell, Sam Gold, Amy Galluzzo, Diana Wensley)
An art song setting of philosophical poetry by Muhammad Iqbal. Read the program note. Winner of the 2009 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize from the International Alliance for Women in Music. |
Oriana Dunlop, Contralto (Students at New England Conservatory.) |
Composed July-September 2008
Premiered October 28th, 2008 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA
(L-R: Alexandra Frana, Nell, David Meyer, Lauren Hunt, Oriana Dunlop)
The concept of this work is essentially in the title: it's meant to give the sense of a length of time (hours, days or years) passing in a condensed period. |
Jacqueline Leclair, English Horn (Members of Alarm Will Sound, Fireworks Ensemble and Invert.) |
Composed October 2007
Recorded November 2007 at John Kilgore Sound & Recording in New York, NY
Engineered by John Kilgore
(L-R: Chris Jenkins, Nell, Jacqueline Leclair, Bill Kalinkos, Leigh Stuart)
This is a setting of an excerpt from St. Augustine's "Confessions" about memory and sense (in an English translation by Henry Chadwick). Read complete text (in new window). I wrote an essay about the process of composing this piece. You can read it at my journal. |
Kris Gould, Soprano |
Composed June-August 2007
Recorded September 2007 at John Kilgore Sound & Recording in New York, NY
Engineered by Patrick Ford, Mixed by John Kilgore
Special thanks to Kim D. Sherman
Nell and her performers peruse the score.
(L-R: John Olund, Kurt-Owen Richards, Nell (seated), Lawrence Lipnik, Kris Gould)
© 2009 Nell Shaw Cohen
Please do not redistribute any of this content.
Send questions and comments to nell@nellshawcohen.com