Swiss Global Artistic Foundation

Twenty-year-old composer Nell Shaw Cohen studies with Michael Gandolfi at New England Conservatory, where she was awarded a top merit scholarship in composition. Born in San Francisco, Ms Cohen was raised in California and New York. Before shifting her focus to chamber music, she pursued a career in progressive rock as a composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. Longtime Village Voice music editor Chuck Eddy reviewed her original album Tempus in Harp Magazine, saying Ms Cohen "thrice comes close to climbing the pomp heights of 70s rock...with Yes-like ornateness". The recordings of her compositions presented at the 4th Annual Playhouse Project Benefit Concert featured performances by members of the renowned vocal ensemble Lionheart, and two of the East Coast's leading new music groups: Fireworks Ensemble and Alarm Will Sound.

Seven of Ms Cohen's chamber ensemble works were premiered during the 2008-2009 season of the Tuesday Night New Music concert series at New England Conservatory. She has written works for voices, solo instruments, ensembles, chamber orchestra and large orchestra. One of Ms Cohen's dreams is to write opera, and she plans to compose and direct a chamber opera in 2009-2010.

Ms Cohen is the recipient of the IAWM Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize (2009) and NEC's Francis Judd Cooke Scholarship for Students of Composition (2008-2012), and has participated in master classes with John Harbison, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and Geoffrey Simon.

More information about Nell Shaw Cohen may be found at www.nellshawcohen.com.