Jazz Festival Workshop with Emmet Cohen & Bruce Harris
Clinic featuring Emmet Cohen (ft Bruce Harris)
Emmet Cohen
Multifaceted American jazz pianist and composer Emmet Cohen is in the vanguard of his
generation’s advancement of music and the related arts. A recognized prodigy, Cohen began
Suzuki method piano instruction at age three, and his playing quickly became a mature
melding of musicality, technique, and concept. Downbeat observed that his “nimble touch,
measured stride and warm harmonic vocabulary indicate he’s above any convoluted technical
showmanship.” Cohen notes that performing jazz is “about communicating the deepest levels
of humanity and individuality; it’s essentially about connections,” both among musicians and
with audiences. He leads his namesake ensemble, the “Emmet Cohen Trio,” is a vibrant solo
performer, and is in constant demand as a sideman. Possessing a fluid technique, an
innovative tonal palette, and an extensive repertoire, Cohen plays with the command and
passion of an artist fully devoted to his medium.
Emmet Cohen is committed to the intergenerational transfer of the knowledge, history, and
traditions of jazz. His signature professional undertaking is the “Masters Legacy Series,” a
celebratory set of recordings and interviews honoring legendary jazz musicians. He serves as
both producer and pianist for each album in the series. This landmark, ongoing project
provides musicians of multiple generations the means to share the unwritten folklore that is
America’s unique artistic idiom. Cohen has observed that jazz “is enriched immeasurably by
connecting and studying with jazz masters, forging backward to the very creation of the art
form.” Four volumes of the “Masters Legacy Series” have been released, spotlighting Cohen’s
collaborations with Jimmy Cobb, Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Tootie Heath, and George
Coleman.
Emmet Cohen is the winner of the 2019 American Pianists Awards and the Cole Porter Fellow
of the American Pianists Association, and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Indianapolis.
He placed first in both the 2014 American Jazz Pianists Competition and the 2011 Phillips
Piano Competition at the University of West Florida and, as a finalist in the 2011 Thelonious
Monk International Piano Competition, he was received in the Oval Office by President Obama.
Cohen has appeared in varied international jazz events, including the Newport, Monterey,
Detroit, North Sea, Bern, Edinburgh, and Jerusalem jazz festivals, as well as the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. He has also
performed at the Village Vanguard, the Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Birdland, Jazz
Standard, London’s Ronnie Scott’s, Jazzhaus Montmartre in Copenhagen, Lincoln Center’s
Rose Hall, the Cotton Club in Tokyo, and Washington’s Kennedy Center. For many years he
was Hammond B-3 organist-in-residence at Harlem’s SMOKE jazz club.
Cohen has achieved a comprehensive position in the world of the creative arts that extends
beyond keyboard performance. He serves as an international clinician through programs such
as Lincoln Center’s “Jazz for Young People”; however, in his role as a master teacher he
reaches learners of all ages. Himself an alumnus of the YoungArts Foundation, Cohen now
curates multidisciplinary YoungArts programs nationally that include creative writing, theater,
dance, visual arts, cinematography, music, voice, and jazz. Through designing curricula and
selecting master artists as teachers and mentors, Cohen establishes an atmosphere in which
student performers become responsive to their audiences. Cohen has also assisted in
developing interdisciplinary programs directed by choreographers Debbie Allen and Bill T.
Jones.
In addition to leading the “Emmet Cohen Trio,” Cohen has appeared regularly with Ron Carter,
Benny Golson, Jimmy Cobb, George Coleman, Jimmy Heath, Tootie Heath, Houston Person,
Kurt Elling, Billy Hart, Brian Lynch, and Lea DeLaria, among others. He is a member of
Christian McBride’s trio “Tip City” and serves as pianist and music director for jazz vocalist
Veronica Swift. In recent years, Cohen held membership in both the “Herlin Riley Quintet” and
the “Ali Jackson Trio.” He is a Mack Avenue recording artist whose premier CD on that label,
“Future Stride” (2021), features contemporary stars Marquis Hill and Melissa Aldana. Cohen’s
other recordings include “Masters Legacy Series Volume 4: George Coleman” (2019); “Masters
Legacy Series Volume 3: Benny Golson and Tootie Heath” (2019); “Dirty in Detroit” (2018);
“Masters Legacy Series Volume 2: Ron Carter” (2018), a Downbeat top-rated album; “Masters
Legacy Series Volume 1: Jimmy Cobb” (2017); “Questioned Answer” (2014), co-produced with
Brian Lynch; “Infinity” (2013), featuring his Italian trio: and his acclaimed debut CD “In the
Element” (2011), with bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Rodney Green.
During the 2020 lockdown, Cohen developed “Live From Emmet’s Place,” a series of weekly
performances by his trio and special guests livestreamed from his New York apartment that
recall the Harlem rent parties of yesteryear. These concerts, which have received millions of
internet views worldwide, are noteworthy for employing sophisticated production values that
set the standard for live internet jazz performance. Cohen has also established the “Emmet
Cohen Exclusive” membership program which provides subscribers access to previously
unseen concert recordings and other creative offerings, including Cohen’s personal
commentary and observations. Membership allows fans to solidify a relationship with Cohen
and his colleagues, further explore the genre, and help secure the legacy of jazz.
Cohen holds a Masters Degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelors Degree
from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, where he studied with the esteemed
pianist and educator Shelly Berg. In his formative years he was tutored in classical piano at the
Manhattan School of Music’s Pre-College Division.
A dynamic and charismatic performer, Emmet Cohen possesses wide-ranging talents that are
invigorating the contemporary arts world both at home and abroad and are received
enthusiastically worldwide.
Emmet Cohen is a YAMAHA artist.
Bruce Harris
Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, trumpeter Bruce Harris has earned a reputation as one of the most important and emerging voices in jazz today. Harris’s love for music began in his home where the sounds of his grandfather’s alto saxophone and New York’s storied music traditions of bebop and hip-hop consumed him. Inspired by acclaimed director Spike Lee’s “Mo Better Blues,” Harris became enamored with the trumpet and at the age of 13 his musical journey started. Heavily influenced by Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie, Harris performed in the “Essentially Ellington” jazz band competition as a high school junior, earning the opportunity to play alongside famed trumpeter and jazz historian, Wynton Marsalis. Harris went on to earn a Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree in Jazz Performance at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, where he was mentored by trumpet virtuoso, Jon Faddis.
Bruce Harris’s professional career as a performer has been defined by his infectious joy, undeniable passion and youthful energy. His chops were honed in many of New York’s premier music venues and jazz clubs such as Smalls, Smoke Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Ginny’s Supper Club, Minton’s, Rockwood Music Hall, among others. Harris has made appearances on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. In addition, he has appeared alongside a long list of legendary performers, including Wynton Marsalis & the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, The Count Basie Orchestra, Michael Feinstein, Barry Harris, Roy Hargrove, and Tony Bennett. In 2013, for Ebony Magazine, Wynton Marsalis highlighted Bruce as one of the five important young jazz musicians you should know.