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Clarinet is often associated with certain genres, like swing or folk music. I combine the old and new, using the clarinet as an expressive tool and not in one genre. I'm just happy that people are drawn to what I do.
Anat Cohen -
I think music is one of the clearest ways to connect between people of all differences.
Anat Cohen
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Clarinet is an incredible instrument. It's a great, expressive instrument.
Anat Cohen -
To me, music is a luminous experience. Whenever I'm immersed in it, life lights up for me, no matter what else is going on.
Anat Cohen -
Boston was incredible. I had some of the best experiences of my life there at Berklee because I met a bunch of other people who were at the exact same stage in life and interest as me. There were American and international students all wrapped up in the Berklee environment, where you basically did nothing but music 24/7.
Anat Cohen -
My father had lived in the States in the 1960s for a while and came to love American Songbook material. Even today, he sometimes recognizes singers that I never even heard of, which is beautiful and inspiring.
Anat Cohen -
I could never really figure out why people would live in a kibbutz. I'm such a city girl.
Anat Cohen -
I focused on the saxophone ever since high school. It wasn't until my album 'Poetica,' which I recorded in 2006, that I went back to the clarinet. It felt like it was waiting for me!
Anat Cohen
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I feel like sometimes I get even more goofy onstage than I am offstage. I'm not trying to make the music less than what it is. Even if it's hard for me and I have to think about a lot of details, it's none of the audience's business. I don't want them to feel that I'm having a hard time.
Anat Cohen -
I definitely see myself as an international musician. When I play, I respect the source of the music, whether it's Cuban, Brazilian or Israeli. I try to bring that to all of the music I play. Music has no borders and no flags.
Anat Cohen -
My parents never said to me, 'Why don't you go and get a real profession?' And that really helped.
Anat Cohen -
Influences at home, including classical music, were not all specifically jazz, but the family radio was always on... So there was always some connection to American culture, to American music.
Anat Cohen -
I was focusing on sax while at Berklee, but then I started to play Brazilian choro and Colombian music. I was doing more folkloric stuff on the clarinet because it works better. Finally, I realized I was working more on the clarinet than the saxophone, and I started to feel more comfortable on it.
Anat Cohen -
When I got into high school, clarinet was not really in fashion. Everybody had electric bands.
Anat Cohen
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There's always this joke that I say in Israel: people don't really have discussions; they just try to convince the other people that they are wrong or they are right - they just try to impose their opinion on the others. Sometimes I think it's easier to avoid talking about things and just make music.
Anat Cohen -
My younger brother Avishai was my first influence. He picked up the trumpet, and I listened to him. The way he played - with the half valves and the smears - made me want to play like him.
Anat Cohen -
When I play the clarinet, I am 100 percent myself. It is as if it is part of my body. I can play whatever I think. Let me just read a melody and make it as sweet as I can.
Anat Cohen