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RYAN COHAN QUARTET live at JAZZ SHOWCASE in Chicago!THURSDAY, JULY 11 thru SUNDAY, JULY 14
• SETS at 8p & 10p (no Sunday late set)
• Additional 4p matinee set on Sunday
Ryan Cohan - piano
Geof Bradfield - woodwinds
Lorin Cohen - bass
George Fludas - drums
Throughout his critically acclaimed recordings as a leader and as a collaborator with numerous leading jazz figures and world-class ensembles, Ryan Cohan has masterfully walked the line of writer and player, proving himself time and again to be a composer of rare vision as well as a highly versatile, powerfully expressive pianist.
Recognized for his “ingenuity and virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune), Cohan’s expansive body of work of over 250 compositions ranges from solo piano pieces to arrangements for symphony orchestra and scores for independent films. Influenced by his own Palestinian Arab and Jewish dual-heritage, Cohan’s latest recording 'Originations' - his sixth album of original music - dynamically synthesizes Middle Eastern musical themes, classical compositional elements and improvisation. Scored for an eleven-piece chamber ensemble, the narrative driving the music boldly illuminates and affirms the vital human and spiritual connections between disparate cultures and ideologies. The project received unanimous critical praise on its release and landed on numerous ‘Best Jazz Recordings of 2020’ year-end lists by esteemed publications.
Cohan has embarked upon multiple international tours representing the U.S. Department of State in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center. Leading his quartet, Cohan traveled across Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East performing and collaborating with local musicians with the mission of fostering empathy and connection between cultures through music.
A Chicago native, Cohan has worked with such jazz luminaries and elite large ensembles as Freddie Hubbard, Randy Brecker, Joe Locke, Kurt Elling, Andy Narell, Jon Faddis, Paquito D’Rivera, Gregory Porter, Jeff Hamilton, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orbert Davis’s Chicago Jazz Philharmonic and The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra with Otis Clay among others. Both as an accompanist and fronting his various ensembles, Cohan has performed at premier venues across five continents. He has collaborated extensively with Ramsey Lewis, contributing more than twenty compositions and arrangements to the late NEA Jazz Master’s recorded and live performance repertoire and penned the theme song for Lewis’s nationally syndicated television series, The Legends of Jazz, that was performed weekly by the show’s guests including Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, George Duke, Marcus Miller, Vinnie Colaiuta, Lee Ritenour, John Pizzarelli and Jane Monheit. Cohan provided the orchestral writing for master vibraphonist Joe Locke’s recording, Wish Upon A Star (Motéma) featuring Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, and he was commissioned to arrange music for The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra.
Late in 2023, Cohan was named winner of the 8th Annual George Duke Commissioning Prize by the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra and will compose an original work for the 68-piece ensemble to be premiered in 2024. He is the first Chicagoan to be awarded this competitive commission in the program’s history.
Thus far in his career, Cohan has received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in composition, Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Music and Sound Design Fellowship, Sundance Institute’s Interdisciplinary Grant, four New Jazz Works commissioning grants from Chamber Music America and The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, New Music USA's Creator Fund Award, The Aaron Copland Recording Grant and two Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowships.
As an educator, Cohan held the position of Artist-in-Residence at Guimarães Jazz (PORTUGAL), The University of Louisville School of Music and Purdue Univeristy and has been on the music faculty at the University Of Illinois at Chicago, The Skidmore Jazz Institute in New York and was a teaching mentor for the Jazz Institute of Chicago. He has also worked extensively as an artist clinician at dozens of universities, high schools and other notable music programs locally, throughout the U.S and abroad.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Jazz Showcase, 806 S Plymouth Ct,Chicago,IL,United States
