Collaboration with Lauren Flanigan, soprano
Chris has collaborated regularly with renowned soprano Lauren Flanigan since 2006 on music written specifically for her by composers from Stephen Schwartz to Thomas Pasatieri. In summer 2011 he played the premiere performances of Pasatieri’s The Family Room with Flanigan and Catherine Malfitano at the McCarter Theater in Princeton. He also played the original workshop performances of Schwartz’s opera Séance on a Wet Afternoon, which was presented by New York City Opera in April 2011. Cooley and Flanigan have performed together at various venues from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the Shakespeare Theatre Company's gala in Washington, D.C. After their recital in the George London Foundation Recital Series at the Morgan Library, Joanne Lessner wrote in Opera News, “Pianist Christopher Cooley did a superb job, playing dependably and colorfully, always keenly aware of Flanigan’s dramatic intentions.”
(above) Two excerpts from the George London Foundation Recital, October 28, 2008.
Over the past ten years, Chris has worked in an ensemble with Flanigan, accordionist Bill Schimmel, and violist Julie Goodale on relatively unknown songs by Kurt Weill. With this unique instrumentation, the group has presented programs of these songs in creative, sometimes improvisatory arrangements in venues throughout New York City and beyond, including Park Avenue Armory, Café Sabarsky’s Cabaret series at the Neue Gallerie, the Monadnock Music Festival (NH), and Electric Earth Concerts (NH).
Over the past ten years, Chris has worked in an ensemble with Flanigan, accordionist Bill Schimmel, and violist Julie Goodale on relatively unknown songs by Kurt Weill. With this unique instrumentation, the group has presented programs of these songs in creative, sometimes improvisatory arrangements in venues throughout New York City and beyond, including Park Avenue Armory, Café Sabarsky’s Cabaret series at the Neue Gallerie, the Monadnock Music Festival (NH), and Electric Earth Concerts (NH).