Paul Cohen

Paul Cohen is a sought-after saxophonist for orchestral and chamber concerts and solo recitals. He has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Richmond Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Charleston Symphony, and the Philharmonia Virtuosi. His many solo orchestra performances include works by Debussy, Creston, Ibert, Glazunov, Martin, Loeffler, Husa, Dahl, Still, Villa-Lobos, Tomasi, and Cowell. He has also performed with a broad range of orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera (NYC), American Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, New Jersey Symphony, Oregon Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Long Island Philharmonic, Group for Contemporary Music, Greenwich Symphony, and New York Solisti.

Cohen has recorded three albums with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds under the direction of Frederick Fennell and a CD of the music of Villa-Lobos with the Quintet of the Americas, as well as recordings with the Philharmonia Virtuosi, New York Solisti, Paul Winter Consort, North-South Consonance, and the New Sousa Band. In 2018 his CD, Common Ground, was released with chamber music including strings, winds, and piano. In 2019 New York Rising, featuring recent saxophone quartets written for Cohen was released, with the first recording of Grainger’s Lisbon. In 2021, HEARD AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME was issued, featuring the first recording of the original version of the concerto for saxophone by Ingolf Dahl, as well as first performances of lost works by Charles Loeffler. Earlier recordings include Vintage Saxophones Revisited, with the premiere recording of Cowell’s Hymn and Fuguing Tune #18. 

Cohen has rediscovered and performed lost saxophone literature, including works for saxophone and orchestra by Loeffler, Florio, and Dahl as well as chamber works by Grainger, Ornstein, Sousa, Cowell, Siegmeister, and Loeffler. As an arranger, he has written The Renaissance Book (Galaxy Music), Four Piano Blues and Our Town by Copland for saxophone quartet (Boosey and Hawkes). His company, To the Fore Publishers, (www.totheforepublishers.com) publishes his arrangements as well as original, historical, and contemporary saxophone works.

Cohen holds M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. His teachers have included Galan Kral, Joe Allard, and Sigurd Rascher. He has published more than one hundred articles on the history and literature of the saxophone worldwide. His seminal column, Vintage Saxophones Revisited, was featured in the Saxophone Journal from 1985 to 2002. Recent releases include American Landscapes, (American music), Common Ground (chamber music), HEARD AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME (featuring the first recording of the original Dahl Concerto), SOPRANO SUMMIT (soprano saxophone). and most recently, CENTER CHAMBER, featuring the Connosax.

Cohen is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, NYU, and the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.