Dr. Michael Coolen
Michael Coolen is a Professor of Ethnomusicology and Music. He has been the recipient of five Fulbright Fellowships, four NEH Summer Seminar Fellowships, CLA Teacher of the Year, and many other awards and honors. He has lived, worked, and taught in Africa, Europe, and New Zealand. In addition to coordinating theory and composition studies at OSU, he is also Director of the Sound Design Studio and Recording Studio. His interest in world musics and cultures is reflected in the courses he teaches, as well as many of his compositions. Among them are numerous arrangements of traditional African and Latin-American music he has written for marimba and steel drum ensembles. One example is Caderas, a marimba composition which has gained great popularity wherever it is played, and it is currently used as a theme in three of the Disney Theme Parks. The example here is taken from the 1999 CD, Live at the Summit, by the Corvallis based group, the Maharimbas, which received its initial instruction in playing African marimbas from Dr. Coolen. From time to time, you'll hear traditional African applause (ululation) from the audience. If you'd like to learn how to ululate, press here.
Professor Coolen composes in a variety of styles, including songs for solo voice and piano, such as the Song of St. Francis, sung here by Thom Burt with Becky Jeffers on piano. There is also an example of solo piano (Prelude #2), played here at a live recital in Feb. 1999 as an encore by internationally reknowned pianist Craig Sheppard.
In June 1999 the OSU student flute sextet, Flute Salad, performed all four movements of Coolen's Suite for Flute Sextet. The movements are Fanfare, Minanzi, Boogie Fugie, and Rhumba, the latter of which has been published by ARLY, Inc. To learn more about the Suite, and to listen to the movements, click on the link to the left.
In the spring of 2002, the OSU Music Department, in cooperation with the Theater Department, mounted the world premiere of the original musical Blue Willow, with music and lyrics by Michael Coolen, and book and lyrics by New York playwrite Michael Russell. "A Maiden Lady's Love" is a song from the show, and you can listen to it by clicking on the link to the left.
In the fall of 2003, Prof. Coolen was featured in a one-man performance piece titled "Looking For." He is currently working on his next performance piece, titled "String Theory," to be premiered in the Fall of 2005.
Dr. Coolen is also an experienced story-teller. The story "If you can talk you can sing" was told at a noon recital on November 20th, 2001. If you'd like to hear the story, click on link below.
In January 2004 Bella Voce, the OSU Women's choir, premiered Dr. Coolen's newest piece for choir and percussion. Titled Pura Vida, the composition is a lively Latin piece that has been recently published by Hal Leonard, Inc. both in SSAA and SATB arrangements. Bella Voce performed the piece in July in Estonia. To hear a performance, click on the link to the left.
On March 9, 2004, Emily Thielen premiered his composition Five Very Short Songs on African Proverbs. The titles of the movements are A Bitter Heart, The First Step, Infinite Boiling, Weakness, and Soon Enough. Her accompanist was Nichola Nine-Zielke. To hear the performance, click on the link below.
On February 8, Angela Carlson and Rebecca Jeffers premiered Demasiado, Coolen's composition for one piano four hands. To learn more about it and to hear it, click on the link below.
He is currently working on a variety of compositions, including an oratorio titled Lucifer, which is a re-telling of Paradise Lost from Lucifer's point of view.