Robert Cohen

Every month we talk with cellist and Lake Effect contributor Robert Cohen about music and life in a segment we call On That Note.

Robert has been on tour since mid-January. We caught him in the Netherlands after he'd just come from Finland and the Tampere Chamber Music Festival. While he was in Finland, he performed on stage with someone he never expected to: jazz saxophonist Jukka Perko. Here is their performance of the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1:

Every month we talk with cellist and Lake Effect contributor Robert Cohen about music and life in a segment we call On That Note. This month, we reached Robert at his home in England to learn about an improvised musical experience he recently had:

Every month we talk with cellist Robert Cohen about the life of a touring classical musician. It’s a segment we call On That Note. This month finds Robert recently moved to the Suffolk countryside in England. And between unpacking boxes and hooking up utilities, he’s thinking about creativity. He's especially focused on the kind of creativity that is found outside of performance — like practicing.

We all say we want change. But when we’re presented with it, most of us resist it. We don’t like being outside of our comfort zones. And that is as true for professional creatives like musicians as it is for anyone else.

Every month, we talk with contributor Robert Cohen about the life and work of a touring classical musician for our On That Note series. This month, Cohen is thinking about his musical influences, which started with his parents at home. His father was a violinist who practiced chamber music in the house.

"His attitude definitely, and most of all the way he played the violin, which was a very warm sound, very singing and very beautiful," he recalls. "That definitely was a major influence on the way I played the cello, what I expected from the cello."

Every month, contributor Robert Cohen offers insight about the life and work of a touring classical musician for our On That Note series. This month, Cohen spoke with Lake Effect's Bonnie North about what aging means for a professional performer.

As people age, they naturally need to adapt their bodies. Cohen says that as a musician, he has always been precisely aware of how his body is positioned and moving. But that these days, carrying his cello is not getting any easier.

Every month, cellist Robert Cohen joins us to talk about the life of a working, touring, professional musician. He’s talked about concerts and venues, taking an instrument on the road, and teaching a new generation of cellists.

This month, Robert is hearing ear worms. Or rather, he’s trying not to hear them. It turns out that unlike an advertising jingle or a pop song that might get stuck in my head, the ear worms Robert gets are on an entirely different level.

Every month, cellist Robert Cohen talks about his life as a touring, classical musician. Yet over the years, he has never talked about one of the most essential parts of any musician's life: the audition process.

Cohen says he's fortunate to be past the point in his career where he has to worry about upcoming auditions. But for most musicians, auditions are a necessary entry point to work. Cohen talks with Lake Effect's Bonnie North about the audition process for classical musicians:

Every month, cellist Robert Cohen joins us to talk about the life of a working, touring, professional musician. Past segments range in topics from concerts and venues, taking an instrument on the road, to teaching a new generation of cellists.

But today Cohen is thinking about politics — specifically Brexit and what it might mean both for British musicians who tour in Europe and non-British musicians who want to perform in the U.K. Cohen, a native Londoner, says the worry there has reached a fever pitch.

Every month, cellist Robert Cohen joins us to talk about the live of a working, touring, professional musician.  He’s talked about concerts and venues, taking an instrument on the road, and teaching a new generation of cellists.

But one thing we haven’t spoken with Cohen about is working as a conductor, a role he’s about to take on. 

The last time we spoke with Robert Cohen for our On That Note segment, he was preparing to perform Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in Finland. It’s a very difficult and emotional piece, and Robert says he was quite nervous about performing it, not the least because of the physical stamina required.

"If you’re going to be able to play this concerto absolutely to your best, and for it to be in your control and not run out of energy, you have to be really on top of your game," he says.

Cellist Robert Cohen is constantly on the go. Concerts, recitals and master classes take place around the world and often his schedule is booked out two years in advance. This is common for most touring classical musicians, and like most classical musicians, Cohen gets precious little time to rest.

Dance is about creative movement on stage, the dance floor or wherever it’s practiced. And when we talk about dance, it’s often in terms of movement and choreography. But the music itself is an equally integral part of the equation.

"All of that warming up is just a way to prepare [dancers] to be so creative and stunning. That’s a real reminder for us as musicians to always think about where we’re aiming [and to know that at the end, it’s about being creative and about doing something breathtaking and beautiful]," says cellist and Lake Effect contributor Robert Cohen.

Every month we talk about the challenges of being a touring classical musician with internationally renowned cellist Robert Cohen in a series we call On That Note.

This month finds Robert back home in London after a whirlwind tour of Slovakia and Italy, and after a couple of encounters with cameras. He says musicians are used to being photographed and filmed but it takes extra concentration to perform as though the cameras, and the people wielding them, aren't there:

When people think about the concept of arrangements in music (if they do at all), they often it in the folk music world, in which an arranger takes a piece of music from the folk canon and arranges it for an instrument. But arrangements have an important place in the classical music universe, as well.

Each month, we speak with contributor Robert Cohen about the work of a touring classical musician in a feature called “On That Note.” For October, Cohen spoke with Lake Effect’s Bonnie North about why arrangements are so important in classical music.

Every month we talk with internationally reknowned cellist Robert Cohen about the life of a touring professional musician. This month, we find Cohen getting ready to go to Slovakia to perform as part of a festival called Konvergencie, or Covergences in English.

Every month, we talk with our contributor, cellist Robert Cohen, about life as a touring classical musician. He is a former member of a Milwaukee-based ensemble and spent time here each year, even as he maintained (and still maintains) a household in England and various tours around the world.

Cellist Robert Cohen joins us every month to discuss some of the aspects of real life for a touring classical musician.  Cohen was formerly a member of a Milwaukee-based ensemble and spent time here each year, even as he maintained - and still maintains - a household in England and tours around the world.

The music he shares can be emotional for listeners.  But Cohen says the experience of sharing the music can be emotional, as well. 

Robert Cohen is an internationally recognized cellist who joins Lake Effect each month to talk about the life of a working classical musician. It's a series we call On That Note.

Cohen is no stranger to working with young musicians - a great part of his career is about teaching young, aspiring cellists, students who hope to perform on the world's concert stages one day. But more recently, Cohen has also been working with students who have no such dreams or professional expectations. These older adults choose to learn to play the cello for other reasons.

What do you know about Bulgaria? Most of us, if we have any thoughts about it, think of a dark mysterious place behind the Iron Curtain. And though democracy came to Eastern Europe in the 1990s, Bulgaria still brings to mind a place largely closed off from the modern developed world.

Of course, that's not exactly the case in 2018. It’s a place where cellist Robert Cohen recently performed, and for this month’s On That Note segment, he joins Bonnie North to talk about the experience. Cohen says he was actually excited to be back in that part of the world.

Johann Sebastian Bach's 6 Suites for Unaccompanied Cello are masterworks of the Baroque era. They are beautiful to hear and fiendishly difficult to play, and they are considered among the greatest of Bach's many brilliant compositions.

Each suite contains six movements, and performing just one of them during a concert requires a great deal of concentration and skill on the part of the cellist. But to perform all six during a single concert? That's a marathon.

This month's On That Note is all about everyone’s second favorite topic - the weather.

For most of us, weather is either nice or annoying. But musicians monitor temperatures and humidity levels with a devotion verging on the fanatical. Their livelihoods depend upon both their bodies and their instruments being in the best condition possible. And when temperatures are particularly cold and dry, it's hard on both.

Each month cellist Robert Cohen joins Lake Effect to talk about life as a touring classical musician. This month, we find Cohen making a big professional change: After 6 years, he performed his final concerts as a member of the Milwaukee-based Fine Arts Quartet. Cohen is returning to a predominantly solo career.

Did you have the chance to take in any live music over the holidays? Whether it’s a performance of The Nutcracker, or holiday pops music, music is an integral part of the holiday season for many of us.

Every month cellist Robert Cohen talks about his life as a professional musician in a segment called On That Note. The conversations range from how to travel with a cello to how to best memorize music, and a wide array of other topics that explore what it means to work as a musician. 

Cellist Robert Cohen joins Lake Effect each month in a series we call On That Note. We talk about everything from travel challenges to how to memorize music as we explore the life of a professional classical musician.

We’re changing it up a bit this month because this time Robert was able to bring along his Fine Arts Quartet colleague, violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez. And when you have such high caliber musicians in your studio, talking is good (and we do chat a bit after the music), but a concert is better.

Cellist Robert Cohen joins Lake Effect every month for On That Note, an ongoing conversation about the life of a touring classical musician.

Recently, Cohen made a large technological leap, which he's been contemplating for years. He bought a tablet. "I am now using an iPad on a special stand to read my music," he explains. 

Each month, cellist Robert Cohen joins Lake Effect to talk about the life of a professional classical musician. Our On That Note series has tackled everything from traveling with an extremely rare and valuable instrument too large for the overhead bin to what it’s like to perform with musicians who were once your students.

Cellist Robert Cohen joins us every month to talk about the life of working classical musician for the segment: On That Note with Robert Cohen.

This month, Robert is preparing for a series of concerts and is revisiting a piece of music he hasn’t played in a long time. And as it turns out it's an interesting process.

"I'm playing a piece that I haven't played for at least 25 years...and it's really fascinating coming back to kind of re-learn a piece that I've barely even thought about for all of that time," says Cohen.