Anat Cohen

Professions :

Musician

My everyday life is not just walking around on clouds. But you have to give the really special things in life importance and not let the temporary things roll you off the road.

you walking clouds life

Sometimes I get off stage, and I almost have no recollection of what happened. It's almost like a trance; it's very bizarre.

like happened stage sometimes

The clarinet has always been my baby. I just didn't know that for a while.

just know always baby

Clarinet is an incredible instrument. It's a great, expressive instrument.

instrument incredible great clarinet

I flow between modern and traditional jazz, between samba and choro - all maybe in a week's time.

week jazz flow time

I'm helping people think the clarinet is cool.

cool think helping people

We still have to overcome the notion that a clarinet squeaks. People need to remember what a beautiful instrument it is, including in popular music.

music remember beautiful people

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.

i-am myself me sweet

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.

me music business time

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.

me experience music life

Whether it's performing a concert with my quartet or sitting in with my peers, enjoying musical conversations at home with my brothers or hanging and playing choro with my friends - sharing moments in that bright space of music are the happiest times.

friends music space home

There are a lot of Israeli musicians in New York because you want to grow and go onstage, and eventually you have to get out of Israel to do that because there aren't enough places to play.

musicians grow new you

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.

doing feel better music

Avishai my brother always says to the audience, 'If you weren't here, it would just be a rehearsal.' So it's important to me to acknowledge and engage them. I know that they are there for me, and I'm humbled by that.

me you important brother

I could never really figure out why people would live in a kibbutz. I'm such a city girl.

live city girl people

My father knew classical music very well. Driving in the car, listening to the radio, he could name every composer, every movement, what piece it was. I was fascinated by the way he recognized who wrote what.

name car music father

I have an ambivalent feeling about the Israeli army. Growing up in Tel Aviv, being involved in the arts, the last thing artists want to do is fight.

feeling fight growing-up army

With cab drivers, I always say I'm from Brazil. I don't say I'm from Israel. It's happened more than once that someone is blaming me for the government's policy. And I say, 'Listen, I live here. I'm a musician. I don't call the shots.'

live someone me government

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.

new music happy people

I have two brothers that are musicians. My older brother, Yuval, is a saxophone player. My younger brother, Avishai, is a trumpet player.

musicians younger-brother brother two

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