Carson Cooman

Carson Cooman ranks among the most productive composers active today, with a catalog that stretches into the thousands of pieces and employs conventional opus designations. He also maintains a profile as an organist and music critic.

Born in Rochester, New York, on June 12, 1982, Cooman started piano at age three and organ at ten under Bruce Klanderman. He completed a music degree at Harvard University, then enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for studies with Bernard Rands and Judith Weir; Alan Fletcher, James Willey, and several other teachers also guided his training. An ASCAP Standard Award reached him in 1997 during his student years, and he has received the same distinction on numerous later occasions. His catalog covers opera, orchestral scores, chamber works, brass-band pieces, and guitar music. By age thirty he had produced nearly one thousand compositions written in a direct style that follows the example of Aaron Copland. At least forty commissions arrived during the 2007-2008 season. From 2005 to 2009 he edited Living Music Journal and continues to serve as a staff critic for Fanfare.

Cooman was named composer-in-residence at Harvard Memorial Church in 2006 and held the same post at Boston’s Cathedral Church of St. Paul from 2008 to 2011. Choral commissions arrive regularly. His vocal music has involved texts by Joyce Carol Oates, Mary Louise Bringle, and John Core. Widespread notice for his work began in the late 2000s, leading to performances on six continents in major halls such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and in atypical locations including the basket of a hot-air balloon. Extensive recital tours as an organist have centered on contemporary repertoire; he has introduced more than one hundred organ works by himself and others. In 2015 he became Organ and Choral Editor for Lorenz Publishing Company and Sacred Music Press while continuing editorial work for additional firms.

More than forty recordings contain his music, among them at least twenty discs devoted entirely to his output, issued on Albany, MSR Classics, and Divine Art. Twilight Poems for piano, Op. 1395, appeared in 2021.