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The first work we will play on the concert on January 10th 4PM at Scottsdale Center for the Arts will be a work titled "Hurricane Abigale" by Graham Cohen. Last year he submitted his orchestral piece "Infernal Fantasy" for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer's contest and in competition with 600 other pieces by composers under the age of 18 he won first prize-the Charlotte Bergen Scholarship.
As his father, I did not trust my judgment that this work was as good as I thought it was. This is funny for me as I have made it my life work to make independent judgments about the value of various pieces of music. But in this case, I was too close to trust my own feelings. The confirmation we got from the selection committee for the prize did give me the confidence that I could pick, from among Graham's many works for orchestra, the best representative of his development since he wrote Infernal Fantasy. Hurricane Abigale fit the bill.
The title refers to a hurricane that hit the fictional country of New Forest- a creation of Graham's imagination-in 1864. This horrific hurricane demolished the capital, New Forest city, and even caused damage many miles from the capital. Graham has created many details of this land, including detailed descriptions of location, language and weather.
Graham loves weather, and he seems to be inspired by it. This piece describes, in vivid detail, the preparations for the category 5 hurricane, the storm's entrance, the terrifying eyewall, the eerie calm of the eye of the storm, the back eyewall and finally a depiction of the aftermath. Throughout, his command of program music-and this piece really tells a story-is as scary as the hurricane he is depicting.
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The thing that delights me about Graham is his exurberance and creativity. And the fact that he is self-taught along with that youthful curiosity to learn makes me wonder what will he be doing in his teen years? At least we can not accuse you of parading your son across the country in order to make money to support the family like W.A's father did. The programmatic description raises my interest in how he will musically achieve that sensation having never been in a category 5 hurricane (perhaps a level 1 or 2 only).
ReplyDeleteI used to be Graham's friend, and i think that it was a very good piece. I liked him alot as his friend and wish to encourage him through email and remain in touch with him. Graham is such a talented almost 12-year old, and he will achieve great things when hes older. Heck, he might be president. I would vote for him.
ReplyDeleteHaving Just heard Hurricane Agigale on U Tube I am very impressed by this young 11 year old.
ReplyDeleteHe could be the next Eric Korngold.
I know he is Warren Cohen's son but he is way beyond his years in materity.
I hope he will be a great composer maybe as some people have suggested in film soundtrack as Korngold turned to.