Frank Cooper (musicologist)

Infobox_Person
name = Frank Cooper

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birth_date = 1938
birth_place = Atlanta, Georgia
education =
alma_mater = Florida State University
occupation = Professor of Music
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nationality = American

Frank Cooper (b. 1938, Atlanta, Georgia) is currently Research Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida), and is internationally known as the founder of the Festival of Neglected Romantic Music.

He studied at Florida State University with John Boda, Edward Kilenyi and Ernst von Dohnányi. From 1963 to 1977 he was a member of the faculty at Butler University (Indianapolis Indiana), where in 1968 he founded the Festival of Neglected Romantic Music, which he directed until 1977.

Conductor

The Festival almost immediately attracted the attention of Harold C. Schonberg, music critic of the New York Times, who ultimately credited Cooper with personally jump-starting international interest in the Romantic Revival in music. Many seminal works of the Romantic era that had not been heard since the 19th century received their first performances in decades at the Festival,

Schonberg and other critics commented on the high professional level of the presentations, and certain specific performers became associated with the Festival main|Festival of Neglected Romantic Music

After serving as executive director of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Arts Council, Cooper moved to Miami, Florida where he directed the Dade County Council of Arts and Sciences before returning to teaching, first at the New World School of the Arts, then at the University of Miami.

Pianist

As a pianist, his were the first recordings of piano concerti by Brull, Dreyschock and Raff, and of a substantial selection of salon music by Hünten and Herz (Genesis label). A selection of American harpsichord music that Cooper had just recorded for the American bicentennial in 1976 was lost when the producer left the master tapes on an AmTrak train, and they were never recovered. Cooper is often heard as both pianist and harpsichordist, and currently directs two summer music festivals: Indianapolis Early Music Festival (since 1973) and Coral Gables Mainly Mozart Festival (since 1994).

The author of numerous annotations for LP and CD recordings, Cooper has published more than 50 articles on musical subjects, has provided program notes to major venues, and has been the subject of numerous articles, reviews and broadcasts in the U.S., Canada, England, France, Italy, Netherlands and Serbia. A recipient of the Liszt Centennial Medal from the Hungarian Ministry of Culture, Cooper is senior advisor to Miami’s Patrons of Exceptional Artists.

Piano Recordings

*Ignaz Brull: Concerto No. 2 in C Major, Op. 24, Zsolt Deaky conducting, Nurnberg Symphony (Genesis GS 1015)
*Alexander Dreyschock: Concert-Piece in c minor, Op. 27 and Joachim Raff: Concerto in c minor, Op. 185 (Genesis GS 1013), Zsolt Deaky conducting, Nurnberg Symphony
*Henri Herz: Selected Piano Works and Franz Hunten: Selected Piano Works ("Geniuses of the Parisian Salon") (Genesis GS 1006)

References

*Jesse Knight, "The Romantic Revival - Setting the Record Straight (A Conversation with Frank Cooper)" (Walkerton: Lion Enterprises), 1979
*'Operatic and Dramatic Music,' in Alan Walker, ed., "Robert Schumann, The Man and His Music" (London: Barrie and Jenkins), 1972 (hardcover), 1976 (paper)
*'Miami's Entry into Cultural Tourism,' in "Innovation and Creativity in Travel Research and Marketing - Keys to Survival and Opportunity", Bureau of Economic and Business Research, Graduate School of Business, University of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1981)