pianist, accompanist, arranger
last updated: September 8, 2005
Christopher Cooley began playing the piano at the age of seven and made his orchestra debut at age 15 with the Florida Youth Orchestra. He went on to earn degrees from Florida State University, the University of Texas-Austin, and a doctorate in accompanying at the Manhattan School of music, where he studied with Heasook Rhee. As a soloist, Mr. Cooley has played with the University of Texas Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of Florida and has been a finalist in numerous competitions, including the Josef Hoffmann National Piano Competition. As an accompanist, he has served as a staff pianist at the Intenational Viola Congress (Texas), the Weathersfield and Elan festivals (both in Vermont), Opera Lirica (Orvieto, Italy), Centro Studi Italiani(Urbania, Italy), Ibla Grand Prize Competition (Sicily) in which he was also a winner, the Austrian-American Mozart Academy (Austria), and the Piatigorsky Seminar for Cellists (L.A.). He has played with various instrumental and vocal soloists in Italy, Germany, Austria, England, Russia, Japan and Korea, as well as Weill Hall (Carnegie) and Alice Tully Hall in New York. The New York Concert Review described him as an "excellent, solicitously supportive pianist" who "came through with flying colors."
koolmusik@aol.com
