Anat Cohen
clarinet
Clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has established a wide-ranging career over the past two and a half decades as a soloist, bandleader, collaborator, and composer. She has been credited as a primary force in re-establishing the clarinet as a solo instrument in the 21st century. Cohen has been named Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association every year since 2007, and she has also been the top clarinetist in both the readers and critics polls in DownBeat every year since 2011.
Cohen has performed across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and India, headlining at the Newport and Umbria jazz festivals as well at the Chicago’s Symphony Center and New York’s Village Vanguard. As a collaborator, she has worked with artists ranging from Latin jazz star Paquito D’Rivera and breakout vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant to arthouse pianist Fred Hersch and the all-star, all-woman band Artemis, among others. Coinciding with her solo appearance on the cover of DownBeat's March 2025 issue, she played four milestone concerts at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
In 2024, Cohen released Bloom, her 21st album as a leader or co-leader and the second with her small group Quartetinho. In March 2025, she released Interaction on Anzic Records, the label she co-founded. The live recording features her family ensemble, The 3 Cohens—alongside her brothers, trumpeter Avishai and saxophonist Yuval Cohen—with Germany's WDR Big Band. The project was arranged and conducted by Oded Lev-Ari, who also works with her Anat Cohen Tentet. That ensemble has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall and SFJAZZ’s Miner Auditorium. In 2019, the Tentet’s second album Triple Helix was nominated for a Grammy Award. Since 2005, Cohen has recorded and released music on Anzic Records, ranging from small group projects, large ensemble work, and recordings exploring a world of musical styles. Not only have many of her albums as a leader included Brazilian classics and original pieces that Cohen composed under the influence of choro, samba, bossa nova and more; the clarinetist has also devoted multiple albums completely to Brazilian music, including Outra Coisa: The Music of Moacir Santos (with Brazilian guitarist Marcello Gonçalves) and Rosa Dos Ventos (with Trio Brasileiro), both of which were Grammy-nominated.
Cohen teaches at the Stanford University Jazz Workshop, The New School, among other institutions, and has been Jazz Artist-in-Residence at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute.