REVIEWS, etc.

Founded in 2000 and now in its 6th season, the Black Hawk Chamber Music Festival offers Quad Citians a midsummer bouquet of chamber music by famous and little-known composers, illuminating many unusual aspects of musical performance from the Renaissance through the present, and sometimes providing an opportunity to hear these works performed on exact replicas of the instruments with which the composers were familiar. Festival repertoire ranges from classical favorites and new works written for the performers to unpublished chamber music from the Library of Congress.  The week-long summer festival brings together artists from the region and other world-class musicians from around the country and abroad.

THE DISPATCH and THE ROCK ISLAND ARGUS May 2000
"A priceless experience ... phenomenal virtuosity and finesse ... intricate artistry ... magic.
"In the absence of the Mozart Festival, the Black Hawk Chamber Music Festival is a most welcome event, and it is hoped that community support will warrant its continuation."  - - Julie Jensen,

THE DISPATCH and THE ROCK ISLAND ARGUS August 2001
"Cohan a magician as a musician" (headline)
"...played to perfection"  -- Julie Jensen

THE DISPATCH and THE ROCK ISLAND ARGUS July 2002
"The saying goes, "The third time is the charm," but the Black Hawk Chamber Music Festival has been a charmer since its debut in 2000."
-- Julie Jensen

THE WASHINGTON POST August 2005
"Chamber Music Festival's Sounds of Slovenia" (headline)
"Modern Composers Get a Hearing on the Hill"
   "From piece to piece, Cohan's artistry was evident as he breathed life into his instrument, seeming to find no limit to its sonic possibilities, ways of articulating phrases and modes of expressing composers' personal styles..."  -- Cecelia Porter

THE WASHINGTON POST August 2004
"Jeffrey Cohan, George Shangrow" (headline)
   "You might wonder how a concert made up of Handel sonatas written nearly three centuries ago -- and designed for two apparently mild-mannered instruments -- might rivet an audience's attention for an entire evening. But Saturday it worked gloriously. Superb playing outlined Handel's bizarre melodic turns and jarring harmonies...
   "Cohan transformed Handel's often bare, skeletal melodies, with improvisations unwinding in fancifully embellished peregrinations -- all mellow-toned, yet exhorting a "message" in character portrayals with the dogged exuberance of a political candidate. Shangrow's harpsichord echoed the flute's ornaments with gusto. Ideally balanced, the performers fueled the music's gripping metrical drive, escaping into rhythmic elasticity for momentary expressive asides."  -- Cecelia Porter

THE WASHINGTON POST July 2002
"Chamber Music In the Key of We" (headline)
   "Baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan and harpsichordist George Shangrow give new meaning to the intimacy implicit in the genre of chamber music" -- Joan Reinthaler

THE WASHINGTON POST July 2001
"The audience clearly was entranced ... flutist Jeffrey Cohan captivated young and old ... a virtuoso at conveying myriad colors"  -- Cecelia Porter