Announcing a New Release from Organist Carson Cooman!

The New Year will see the release of a new album by esteemed American composer and organist Carson Cooman, from Divine Art. The label has issued a number of Cooman’s recordings and is also producing the series of Cooman’s own compositions played by Erik Simmons (currently at volume 15). The Divine Art catalog currently includes 199 of Cooman’s compositions.

On Cooman’s new album ‘Companions’ he presents a program of contemporary music for organ recorded on the remarkable post-romantic Thomas Gaida organ of the Pauluskirche in Ulm, Germany. The album features ten works by nine composers representing six countries. The music varies widely in character and scope, from smaller character pieces and meditations to several dramatic, large-scale works. The final piece is the grand 15th organ symphony of English composer Bernard Heyes.

Carson Cooman (b. 1982) is an American composer with a catalog of hundreds of works in many forms—ranging from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. His music has been performed on all six inhabited continents in venues that range from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the basket of a hot air balloon. Cooman’s work appears on over forty recordings, including more than twenty-five complete CDs on the Naxos, Albany, Artek, Gothic, Divine Art, Métier, Diversions, Altarus, Convivium, MSR Classics, Raven, and Zimbel labels. Cooman’s primary composition studies were with Bernard Rands, Judith Weir, Alan Fletcher, and James Willey.

As an active concert organist, Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music. Over 300 new compositions by more than 100 international composers have been written for him, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of CD releases and more than 3,000 recordings available online. Cooman is also a writer on musical subjects, producing articles and reviews frequently for a number of international publications. He serves as an active consultant on music business matters to composers and performing organizations, specializing particularly in the area of composer estates and archives.