Immanuel Wilkins (left); Jacob Cooper (right)
American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between acclaimed saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins and composer Jacob Cooper, a 2020 Pew Fellow. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.
FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.
Immanuel Wilkins is a Saxophonist, Composer, Arranger, and Bandleader from the greater Philadelphia-area. While growing up, he honed his skills in the church and studied in programs dedicated to teaching jazz music like the Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts. Immanuel earned his bachelor’s degree in Music at Juillard (studying with the saxophonists Bruce Williams and the late Joe Temperley) while simultaneously establishing himself as an in-demand sideman working and/or recording with artists like Jason Moran, the Count Basie Orchestra, Delfeayo Marsalis, Joel Ross, Aaron Parks, Gerald Clayton, Gretchen Parlato, Lalah Hathaway, Solange Knowles, Bob Dylan, and Wynton Marsalis. It was also during this same period that he formed his quartet featuring his long-time bandmates: Micah Thomas (piano), Daryl Johns (bass) and Kweku Sumbry (drums). Being a bandleader and having a working group for over four years has allowed Immanuel to grow both as a composer and arranger — and has led to him receiving a number of commissions including, most recently, from The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, The Jazz Gallery Artist Residency Commission Program (A collaboration with Sidra Bell Dance NY, 2020 ) and The Kimmel Center Artist in Residence for 2020 (a collaboration with photographer Rog Walker and videographer David Dempewolf) Being emerged in the scene at a young age and sharing the stage with various jazz masters, has inspired Immanuel to pursue his goal of being a positive force in music and society. Through studying the human pathos of the music and the culture of jazz, Immanuel aspires to bring people together through the commonality of love and belief in this music. His debut recording, Omega — produced by Jason Moran— will be released on Blue Note Recordings on August 7, 2020.
Composer Jacob Cooper enjoys collaborating with performers, poets, and directors, as well as with machines, environments, and questionable histories. Lauded as “richly talented” (The New York Times) and a “maverick electronic song composer” (The New Yorker), Jacob has fulfilled commissions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Eighth Blackbird, the Calder Quartet, singer Jodie Landau, cellist Ashley Bathgate, and Ensemble Connect (formerly ACJW). Pitchfork praised Jacob’s recent album Terrain (New Amsterdam Records) as “vital and compulsive,” highlighting its “surprisingly magnetic meditations on time” that are “firmly rooted both in the distant past and music much closer to the present,” while San Francisco Classical Voice characterized the album as a “beautiful way to look at sky when sky is not available.” The String Orchestra of Brooklyn’s recording of his expansive Stabat Mater Dolorosa was listed by National Public Radio as a Top 10 album of January 2020, and the New York Times described the work as “exhaustingly poignant.” Jacob’s song cycle Silver Threads, written for soprano Mellissa Hughes and electronic track, was released by Nonesuch Records and hailed as a “Best of 2014” recording by WQXR. Other works of his appear on Cedille Records, New Focus Recordings, and Innova Recordings. Jacob is a 2020 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellow, and has earned awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, Chamber Music America, and New Music USA. He teaches at West Chester University and lives in Philadelphia, PA with his wife Claudia and children Asher and Lia.