Michal Cohen

"By far one of the most magnificent artists in the world-beat arena, is named Michal Cohen." (J-Sin, Smother) Her performing experience includes Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Jewish History Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Symphony Space, Scullers, Joe’s Pub, Satalla, Pianos, and the Knitting Factory. She has toured widely; Avivir festival, Tamaulipas Folk Festival, and Del Desierto World Festival in Mexico, Hudson River Music Festival, CKCU Ottawa Folk Festival, extended tours with different bands in U.S.A., Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, and in Canada, The Brighton Ethnic Festival, the NYANA festival, etc.Her range extends from ancient Yemenite songs through to contemporary. Michal has been collaborating with composers like, Meredith Monk, Uri Caine, Yuval Ron w/ Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, DJ Cheb I Sabbah, Jazzhole, Avi Elbaz, Guillermo Nojechowicz, Frank London, and Alon Yavnai. Her vocals have appeared on two movies: “Historias Minimas”, by Carlos Sorin, and Pearl Gluck’s “Divan”. She was featured in a program of original electronic music in the German capital - Berlin, on NPR, WMRD-AM, Forward, WHRV, WUST-AM, PBS, and the 'Voice of Music'.Besides English, Yemenite, and Hebrew, Michal has sung in Bulgarian, Spanish, French, Turkish, Yiddish and Portuguese. She is the recipient of a “Finalist” and of two “Honorable Mentions” from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2000 and 2002, as well as The Vocal-Jazz Cleo Laine Award.After studying at Rimon College of Music in Israel, Michal arrived in the U.S. with a scholarship at the Berklee College of Music, and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2000. Here she has been studying with Jeannette LoVetri, Theo Bleckmann, Luciana Souza, Kevin Mahogany, Marlon Saunders, Bob Stollof, and Tal Freiberg. She has participated in workshops by Meredith Monk, Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Peter Eldridge, and Dominique Eade.