Home » Member Page
Dan Cooper
About Me
DAN COOPER’s music has been noted in The Associated Press, American Record Guide, Berkshire Eagle, Boston Globe, CurtainUp, Fanfare, Greenwich Times, I Care If You Listen, Metroland Albany, NMC, The New York Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Strings Magazine, Times Union, and Time Out New York, among others - “contemporary impressionism,” “invigoratingly eclectic to the max,” “inventive,” “creative,” “fun and exciting,” “kinetic,” “vibrant,” “drawing on vernacular styles,” “especially fascinating,” “full of instrumental virtuosity and sly humor,” “utterly charming,” “incorporates blues..into a contemporary context,” “whimsical,” “carefree,” “effervescent,” “acute,” “daring,” “rambunctious,” “well-plotted,” “hauntingly beautiful,” and with a “spirit of originality, verve, and humor, now being passed on to a new generation.” Cooper was born and raised in Manhattan, and educated at Horace Mann, Columbia, NEC, and Princeton. He also completed studies at the Conservatoire de Nice and Fontainebleau. His principal teachers were John Heiss, Steve Mackey, and Paul Lansky, and he also studied with Barbara White, Betsy Jolas, Chen Yi, John Harbison, Kenneth Koch, Lee Hyla, Michael Gandolfi, Mindy Kaufman, Osvaldo Golijov, Perry Cook, Philip Glass, Philippe Manoury, Robert Ceely, and Toni Morrison, among others. For several years, Cooper worked as an assistant to electronic music pioneer Otto Luening, who mentored him in composition, orchestration, and musical life in general. The recipient of an Aaron Copland composition fellowship to Tanglewood, Cooper worked as an assistant to Louis Andriessen, and composed and produced incidental music for several acclaimed Shakespeare & Company productions directed by Tina Packer and Daniela Varon: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ ‘Coriolanus,’ ‘King Lear,’ and ‘The Winter’s Tale.’ In addition, Cooper’s music was premiered at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, at a gala event featuring Mike Wallace, Jane Fonda, David Strathairn, and Marisa Tomei. As an instrumentalist specializing in multi-string bass guitar and also flute with electronics, Cooper has performed all over the world, as a member of singer Ute Lemper’s trio, as well as the groups Barbaric Yawp, Erbium, Free Radicals, Missing Link Ensemble, Nine Live, Sound Liberation, Tilted Axes, Vision Into Art, and The Yorkvillians, as well as his own Dan Cooper Quartet. Venues include Anadolu Auditorium Istanbul, Austrian Cultural Forum, Ballet Arts Center, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Birdland Theater, Bohemian National Hall, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Bunkamura Orchard Hall Tokyo, Capella Santa María Curitiba, Casino de Paris, CBGB’s, Chicago Theater, Conservatorio Astor Piazzolla Buenos Aires, Conservatorio Felix Garzón Córdoba, Cornelia St. Café, Davies Hall, Dom Omladine Beograda, Drom NYC, Ellington Room, EMESP - Tom Jobim, Fundación Beethoven Buenos Aires, Galapagos Art Space, Gallery MC, Grande Auditório do Centro Cultural de Belém Lisbon, Hong Kong City Hall, Howland Cultural Center, IndieScreen, Intar Theater, Irving Plaza, Jim Kempner Fine Art, Joe’s Pub, Jordan Hall, Konserthuset Stockholm, Koseinenkin Hall Osaka, Le Poisson Rouge, Lisner Auditorium, Mäntyniemi Helsinki, Massey Hall, Mercury Lounge, Miller Theatre, Munich Philharmonic Hall, National Opera Center, NYPL for the Performing Arts - Lincoln Center, 92Y, Nublu, Palau de la Música Catalana, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Pori Jazz Festival, Rockefeller Center, Rockwood Music Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Royce Hall UCLA, Shapeshifter Lab, Shrine NYC, Spectrum NYC, Staatsoper Berlin, Stonewall Inn, Symphony Space - Bar Thalia, Sydney Opera House, Taplin Auditorium, Teatre Municipal de Girona, Teatro Albeniz Madrid, Teatro Cultura Artística São Paulo, Teatro Grand Rex Buenos Aires, Tenri Cultural Center, The American Airlines (Selwyn) Theatre, The American Museum of Natural History, The Blue Note, The Cell Theatre, The Cutting Room, The DiMenna Center, The Gershwin Hotel, The Harvard Club, The Knitting Factory, The Metropolitan Room, The Players Theatre, The Stone, Theatre 80 St. Mark’s, Town Hall, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Universidade de São Paulo, Universidade Estadual do Paraná, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Weill Recital Hall / Carnegie Hall, and Westbeth, among others, plus broadcasts on NBC, BBC, Radio France, Bravo, and RAI. Cooper endorses Overwater basses of Carlisle, U.K. Cooper’s original compositions have been recognized with various awards, commissions, premieres, readings, performances, recordings, showcases, and residencies from Absolute Ensemble, Albany Symphony, Albany Records, ASCAP, Artists International, Avaloch Music Institute, B3+, Bowers-Fader Duo, Cary Trust, Circadia, Composers Now, duoJalal, Electro-Music, ESYO, Engine 27, Erick Hawkins Dance, Ethel, Femmes Four, Fontainebleau, Goddard-Riverside, Harlem Chamber Players, Imani Winds, ISC, June in Buffalo, Lumina String Quartet, Majestic Brass, Meet the Composer, Miolina, NARAS, NEA, NEC, NJSO, NY Licorice Ensemble, NYNME, NYYS, National Flute Association, New Music USA, North River Music, Norwalk Youth Symphony, O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, Palisades Virtuosi, PBT Open Air Festival, Scotia Festival, Seattle Symphony - Octave 9, Sidra Bell Dance New York, American Composers Orchestra - Sonic Festival, Sweet Plantain String Quartet, Sylan Winds, Talujon, Tenth Intervention, Two Sides Sounding, Village Trip, Vox Novus 60x60, Walter W. Naumburg Fund, Willets Road School, and Zentripetal Duo, among others. For twenty-five years, Cooper has taught music courses at SUNY-FIT, where he created new Gen Ed Arts courses in American Music, European-Classical Music, and Latin-American and Caribbean Music. In 2014, he joined the Dance Department faculty of Marymount Manhattan College - Northeastern NYC, where he has taught a range of music courses and worked as a sound designer for the DAW and Mainstage productions. In 2025, he also joined the Humanities Department faculty of CUNY City Tech in downtown Brooklyn, where he has taught a range of music courses and co-curated international music events featuring Cumbia, Gamelan, Salsa, Samba, and Taiko, among others. In addition, Cooper has taught at community centers including 92NY School of Music, Greenwich House, Southbridge, and Goddard Riverside, where he helped create the arts program. He is a co-director of the 501(c)(3) chamber music series and record label Composers Concordance (“Enterprising new music organization” -The New York Times) distributed by Naxos.
