Steven (no relation) is internationally recognized for his music for the concert stage; scores for feature films, television, and commercials; as well as music for the internet.  Mr. Cohn’s concert works have been performed and recorded by the world’s finest chamber music ensembles.

Cohn was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father was an attorney who wrote chamber music as a hobby, while his mother was a dancer and violinist and his sister a flutist. Cohn studied the clarinet as a child and later, classical guitar. Cohn attended Whitman College in Washington and finished his Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in music at California State University at Northridge.  He then attended UCLA as a graduate student in music for one year.

Stephen's first public work came courtesy of the mid-1960's folk quartet The Pleasure Fair, also featuring guitarist and songwriter Robb Royer (later of the popular 1970's band Bread). This group, with Stephen on guitar and assisting with vocal arrangements, released their first single in 1966 under the name of The Rainy Day People, before becoming Pleasure Fair and issuing an LP the following year.

His first string quartet, Eye of Chaos was premiered by the Arditti Quartet, who also recorded the work for release on an Albany Records CD entitled, Arditti Quartet California Composers. His chamber orchestra work, Noah’s Rhythm was premiered at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, conducted by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Steven Stucky. He has been invited twice to be Composer in Residence at The International Musical Encounters of Catalonia which he attended in the south of France. His violin duet, Matin Sur les Collines de Ceret was performed at the Otzberg Summer Festival in Germany. In 2006, his orchestral work Finale, from Two Together, an American Folk Music Suite was premiered by the Kansas City Symphony. The same work is part of an At Peace Media CD release which won at Parents’ Choice Gold Award in 2003.[3] Also in 2006, his work for choir and chamber orchestra commissioned by the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music, entitled The Family of God was premiered at Merkin Hall in New York City.

Cohn has received an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Music”. and his scores have been part of many award winning productions which featured such stars as Lily Tomlin, JoAnne Woodward, and William Shatner to name a few.  In addition, his music career includes songwriting for major labels such as Motown, A&M, and Warner Bros.

Stephen uses the Sibelius music notation program in his work.  He has been asked for assistance with the program by leading Hollywood composers and has taught a class at UCLA in the use of Sibelius.

Stephen studied pop keyboard styling with Cat Cohen.  When Cat opened a pop music school at Cat Cohen Studio in 1981, Stephen became one of the instructors. Along with Cat and Maureen Bailey, they would lead a Song Evaluation Workshop there.   Stephen was accepted into a Master Class in Film Scoring at UCLA taught by Walter Scharf and went on to his highly successful career as a film and TV scorer and fine art composer.  His is a classic case of a student far surpassing his teacher.