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Kristina Reiko Cooper

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Kristina Reiko Cooper
Cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper.
Cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper.
Background information
Born
New York City, New York, U.S.
GenreClassical music
OccupationMusician
InstrumentCello
Websitekristinareikocooper.com

Kristina Reiko Cooper is an American cellist known for her work as a recitalist, chamber musician, soloist with orchestra, recording artist, and educator. She has performed internationally with a wide range of orchestras and ensembles, and she has performed and commissioned contemporary works from composers such as Lera Auerbach,[1] Josef Bardanashvili, Kenji Bunch,[2] Mario Davidovsky, Avner Dorman, Tan Dun, Philip Glass, Tania León,[3] Roberto Sierra, and Benjamin Yusupov.[4] She is Co-Director with Joel Sachs of the contemporary music ensemble Continuum,[5] based in New York City.

Biography

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Ms. Cooper’s newest recording, Hidden Legacies - Weinberg & Korngold, featuring conductor Constantine Orbelian and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, was released on the Delos label in March 2026[6]. The recording was reviewed in the BBC Music Magazine[7], Gramophone[8], Diapason[9], Classical Music Sentinel[10], Online Merker[11], Textura[12], Cinemusical[13], Pizzicato[14], and Infodad[15].

In conjunction with the release of this album, a documentary film, Emerging from the Shadows: Rediscovering the legacies of Weinberg and Korngold[16], which follows Ms. Cooper and Maestro Orbelian as they record the repertoire for the album, received its screening in New York City at the Directors Guild of America’s New York Theater on April 15, 2026[17]. As of today, this film has been shown in multiple festivals and has won multiple awards[18].

Ms. Cooper created a consortium of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and the American Society of Yad Vashem to commission composer Lera Auerbach to write her Symphony No. 6 “Vessels of Light.”[19] Scored for cello, chorus, and orchestra, the work commemorates Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who helped thousands of Jews flee from Europe by issuing travel visas to them so that they could travel through the Japanese territory, risking his career and the lives of his family.[20] As a result, generations of visa recipient families are alive today, including Ms. Cooper’s husband and three children.

“Vessels of Light” received its world premiere in Kaunas, Lithuania, in November 2022, with Ms. Cooper performing as soloist with the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra and Kaunas State Choir under the leadership of conductor Constantine Orbelian.[21] The work has since been performed by ensembles including the New York City Opera Orchestra and Chorus at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Constantine Orbelian;[22] the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Alexander Liebrich;[23] UCLA Philharmonia and Chamber Singers conducted by Neal Stulberg;[24] Festival Napa Valley with the Festival Orchestra Napa[25] as well as the Mexico City Philharmonic under Constantine Orbelian; the Dresden Philharmonie led by François Leleux, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Alan Gilbert, and, in Berlin, by the Konzerthaus Orchester led by Joana Mallwitz.[26]

She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta Beersheba, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Kinnor Philharmonic, Mexico City Philharmonic,[27] Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and ARTE TV. In 2025, she premiered Uri Brener’s Halls of Memory, a concerto for cello and orchestra, with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of fallen Israeli soldiers.[28]

Ms. Cooper has performed at international venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Henry Crown Theater in Jerusalem, and with such orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, the Dresden Philharmonic,[29] the Toronto Symphony, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Osaka Symphony, the Tokyo Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and the Shanghai Symphony.

As a chamber musician, she was a founding member of the Whitman Quartet, Quartetto Gelato, Opus X, and Intersection, and was a recipient of the Walter M. Naumburg Chamber Music Award.[30] Her festival appearances include Lincoln Center Festival, Mostly Mozart, Musicians from Marlboro, Bang on a Can, and the Stresa International Music Festival.

Ms. Cooper was born and raised in New York City into a family of musicians. Her father, Rex Cooper, is a pianist and former professor at the University of the Pacific, and her mother, Mutsuko Tatman, is a violinist who served as concertmaster of the American Symphony Orchestra.[31] Her grandfather, Tomojiro Ikenouchi, was a Japanese composer, and her great-grandfather, Takahama Kyoshi,[32] was a haiku poet. Ms. Cooper holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Joel Krosnick.

A founding musical director of the Israel Chamber Music Society, she serves as Vice President of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation[33][34] and as a board member of the Charney Forum for New Diplomacy.[35] Ms. Cooper, a visiting professor at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music[36] at Tel Aviv University, performs on a 1743 Guadagnini cello, known as the "Ex-Havermeyer," and resides in Tel Aviv with her family.

Ms. Cooper is a published author as a contributing essayist in the book My Jerusalem published by the Gefen Publishing House.

Ms. Cooper converted to Judaism and currently spends her time between New York and Tel Aviv with her husband, Leonard Rosen, an investment banker, whom she married in 2006.[37][38] They have three children.

Discography

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Solo works

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  • Around the World with Love (2016)[39]
  • Joy and Sorrow (2015)
  • Stone and Steel (2008)[40]

As Kristina & Laura

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  • Salut D'Amour (2004)
  • Force of Sound (2003)
  • Passion (2002)
  • Amorosso (2001)
  • Gardens (2000)
  • Intersection (1999)
  • Sweet Times (1998)
  • Manhattan Breeze (1997)

Guest appearances

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  • Hidden Legacies Weinberg & Korngold (2026)[41]
  • Omaramor (2015)
  • The Classical Hour at Steinway Hall (2005)
  • Travels the Orient Express (With Quartetto Gelato) [2004]
  • Artur Schnabel: String Quartet (1998)
  • Roccoco Variations

References

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  1. ↑ "The Symphony for Sugihara". November 5, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Kenji Bunch Compositions". 2025.
  3. ↑ "New Music for Baritone and Chamber Ensemble". DRAM. 2025.
  4. ↑ "Cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper To Appear As Soloist In Holocaust Memorial Day Concert With Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra & Conductor Benjamin Yusupov Jerusalem, Israel, April 24, 2025". Musical America. March 20, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Continuum Ensemble New York About The Directors". 2025.
  6. ↑ "Hidden Legacies Weinbeg & Korngold, Kristina Reiko Cooper, Constantine Orbelian, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra". Outhere Music. March 13, 2026.
  7. ↑ Talbot, Jo (April 23, 2026). "Hidden Legacies Weinberg & Korngold Concertos". BBC Music Magazine. No. May 2026 Issue. p. 110.
  8. ↑ "Orchestral Review KORNGOLD; WEINBERG Cello Concertos (Kristina Reiko Cooper)". Gramophone. April 17, 2026.
  9. ↑ Millon, Yannick (May 28, 2026). "MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG Concerto pour violoncelle. Fantaisie pour violoncelle et orchestre. KORNGOLD: Concerto pour violoncelle. Kristina Reiko Cooper (violoncelle)". Diapason. No. May 2026 Issue. p. 86.
  10. ↑ "MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG - Cello Concerto - Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra - Kristina Reiko Cooper (Cello) - Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra - Constantine Orbelian (Conductor) - 013491361628 - Released: March 2026 - Delos DE3616". Classical Music Sentinel. March 2026.
  11. ↑ "CD: Hidden Legacies Mieczysław Weinberg: Cellokonzert in c-moll op. 43 Fantasie für Cello und Orchester op. 52 Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Cellokonzert in C-Dur op. 37 Kristina Reiko Cooper, Cello Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra Constantine Orbelian, musikalische Leitung Delos, DE3616". Online Merker. March 12, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Cello Works From Weinberg & Korngold". Textura. March 2026.
  13. ↑ "Kristina Reiko Cooper: Weinberg & Korngold: Hidden Legacies, Delos". Cinemusical. March 2026.
  14. ↑ "Celloliteratur mit kraftvoll sensiblen Ausdruckswelten". Pizzicato. March 16, 2026.
  15. ↑ "REMNANT RICHNESS". Infodad.com. March 5, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Emerging from the Shadows: The Legacies of Weinberg and Korngold". Rotten Tomatoes. 2025.
  17. ↑ "Emerging from the Shadows: Rediscovering the legacies of Weinberg and Korngold". Film Freeway. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
  18. ↑ "Emerging from the Shadows: Rediscovering the legacies of Weinberg and Korngold". Bernhard Fleischer. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
  19. ↑ "Yad Vashem's Newly Commissioned Symphony "Vessels of Light", Commemorating the Courageous Holocaust-Era Actions of Righteous Among the Nations Japanese Diplomat Chiune Sugihara, Premieres in Lithuania". Yad Vashem. November 14, 2022.
  20. ↑ "The Project". The Symphony For Sugihara. 2022.
  21. ↑ "VESSELS OF LIGHT. A Symphony dedicated to Chiune Sugihara". Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. November 5, 2022.
  22. ↑ "The Art of Breakage and Repair — Lera Auerbach's new symphony, commissioned by Yad Vashem". Get Classical. April 15, 2023.
  23. ↑ "Prague concert to honour Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews". Radio Prague International. March 27, 2023.
  24. ↑ "'Righteousness and Bravery: A Concert for Sugihara' at UCLA". Rafu Shimpo. May 17, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Crescendo Summer 2023". Festival Bapa Valley. 2023.
  26. ↑ "Der Wunsch, sich zu erinnern". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). November 18, 2024.
  27. ↑ "Cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper To Appear As Soloist With Mexico City Philharmonic". Broadway World. March 12, 2025.
  28. ↑ "The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra's concert for Holocaust remembrance - review". The Jerusalem Post. April 28, 2025.
  29. ↑ "Gewandhausorchester, Alan Gilbert: Auerbach, Shostakovich at Gewandhaus". Classictic. Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  30. ↑ "Walter W. Naumburg Foundation 1998 Chamber Music Competition Winner". Walter W. Naumburg Foundation. 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  31. ↑ Mandel, Amir (31 August 2016). "American Virtuoso Cellist Strums the Strings of Love in Israel". Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. Haaretz. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  32. ↑ "Kristina Reiko Cooper A Cellist You Should Know". Times Square Chronicles. 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  33. ↑ ,"Our Board". AICF. 2025.
  34. ↑ "Kristina Reiko Cooper Trio kicks off arts series March 10". Rome Daily Sentinel. 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
  35. ↑ "Advisory Board". Charney Forum for New Diplomacy. 2025.
  36. ↑ "Teachers, Researchers & Assistants - School of Music". The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music. 2025.
  37. ↑ "American Virtuoso Cellist Strums the Strings of Love in Israel". Haaretz. 2016-08-31. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
  38. ↑ "Kristina Cooper, Leonard Rosen". New York Times. September 10, 2006. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  39. ↑ "Cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper to Release New Album in May". BroadwayWorld.com. 2016-04-04. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
  40. ↑ "Kristina Reiko Cooper, Satoshi Takeishi, John Novacek – Stone And Steel". Discogs. Retrieved January 1, 2008.
  41. ↑ "Hidden Legacies Weinberg & Korngold, Kristina Reiko Cooper, Constantine Orbelian, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra". Outhere Music. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
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