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Reed star Anat Cohen celebrates a milestone year

Anat Cohen

Saturday, July 18, 2026 @ 7:30 pm

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SJW Members: $54 | $44 | Child & Student $12

Non-members: $62 | $52 | Child & Student $20

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Fresh off of a series of major events marking her 50th birthday, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Anat Cohen returns to Stanford, where her jazz festival performances are an annual highlight.

There’s no artist in jazz with a creative vision quite like Anat Cohen. Since arriving in New York City in 1999, she has moved fluidly from trad jazz ensembles devoted to the early music of Louis Armstrong to post-bop alongside her generation’s most cutting-edge improvisers and composers. She has soared in orchestral settings, celebrated Benny Goodman with Benny Green at the Village Vanguard, and walked a musical tightrope in duet with Fred Hersch in Healdsburg — all documented on record.

She has joined forces with her brothers (trumpeter Avishai and soprano saxophonist Yuval) in 3 Cohens and navigated Oded Lev-Ari’s intricate compositions for the Anat Cohen Tentet. Her love of Brazilian music has often shaped her Festival appearances, where she’s collaborated with some of the world’s greatest Brazilian artists. Whether exploring the music of overlooked genius Moacir Santos or MPB icon Milton Nascimento, playing choro, bossa nova, or Brazilian jazz with her Quartetinho, Cohen remains a nonpareil clarinetist and suavely swinging tenor saxophonist at the peak of her powers.

Anat Cohen Website

Personnel:

  • Anat Cohen, clarinet
  • Additional personnel TBA

“The lyric beauty of her tone, easy fluidity of her technique and extroverted manner of her delivery make this music accessible to all.” – Chicago Tribune

“Ms. Cohen on the clarinet was a revelation. Using the clarinet’s upper register, she could evoke infectious joy. In the lower register, her playing could conjure a deep, soulful melancholy. On up-tempo numbers, her improvisations weren’t just bebop fast; they had a clarity and deep intelligence that is really quite rare. She made it look effortless, even as she was playing the most technically difficult of all the reed instruments… she took my breath away.” – New York Times