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Lou Cohen is an American composer, astronomer and technologist. Born in 1937, He began an active musical life at the age of 11, combining musical love with a technical and mathematical grounding. Cohen studied composition in New York with John Cage, Ernst Levy and Alan Kemler. He also studied harpsichord and early music with John Gibbons, performing publicly and privately (including a recent performance of Cage's Perilous Night). Cohen, in collaboration with Christian Wolff was an ardent promoter of New Music in Boston in the early 1960s.

At the same time, Cohen was developing a career at Digital Equipment Corporation, an important computer manufacturer of the day. He developed compilers and operating system software over a 30 year career. Music composition continued through that period, albeit in a more private sphere. Cohen developed a second technology career as a specialist in the field of quality engineering, building on a 6-month stay in Japan. His book on Quality Function Deployment has been widely cited and--now in second edition--remains a popular seller in the field.

A love of science also led to a number of years as a serious astronomer. His telescope, housed in a dome atop his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts was a noteworthy feature of the neighborhood. Cohen was Treasurer of the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers). He was also a strong advocate of science education and was a frequent participant in public outreach presentations. He was recipient of an Extraordinary Service award from the Cambridge School System.

After retiring from his technology career, Cohen returned to composition with renewed energy and insight. The years since 2000 have been his most creative and prolific period. He has largely abandoned writing for acoustic instruments (although he's been a frequent improviser with acoustic performers) and has focused on new ways of performing music with computer. The result has been over a dozen "symphonies", ambitious large works with an increasingly broad vocabulary. In addition, there are many incidental pieces, including a novel series of "Shapes" based on graphic gestures. Cohen has incorporated realtime computer control into his performances and has found a new audience with the Opensound series, of which he is co-director. A number of Cohen's pieces are now commercially available.