Press

Some comments about my music:

Timberbrit:

"The audience is reminded of Spears’s music and lyrics, but the fast pacing of pop becomes dark and weighted. . . The stretching of both the music and story prolongs Spears’s destruction and amplifies her downfall, but seeing it happen in slow motion makes it all the more tragic.”

"A gutsy rock opera."

"'Baby One More Time. . .' has all the passion of 'Nessun Dorma.' Who knew Britney's canon was so conducive to staged melodrama?

"A PR person's wet dream. . . The lives of former Mouseketeers sure make for ripe melodrama."

- Randy Nordschow, NewMusicBox.org

"[With Timberbrit], our city can lay claim to a new cultural offering."

- Page 6 Magazine (NY Post)

"The opera easily transcends its conceptual calculations and becomes an engrossing, intriguing human drama. Human vocals waft over a wave of slowed-down chords, accented by crashing drums and keyboard effects. It has the airy eeriness of a David Lynch film score, yet not as doom-laden. . . The grandeur and polish bear the patience and intelligence of a classical score, but the humanity and desperation are pure pop. . . Just as few fans of Verdi's Camille, Puccini's Madama Butterfly or Mozart's Marriage of Figaro have read the books and stories on which those operas are based, someday when people have forgotten about the real Britney Spears, they may still be enthralled by the tragic electronically fueled slo-mo musical meltdown of Timberbrit."

"Listening to [Timberbrit's] Britney singing like a record on the wrong speed, you feel like either she must be on the drugs, or you are. . . There are moments of overwhelming force in the work. Like when Justin and Britney's voices are nearly drowned out by the guitarist's wall-of-sound chords and the apocalyptic drums. Or the duet when Justin's voice slides above Britney's in a piercing falsetto as they proclaim their love for each other."

- Tom MacMillan, Signals and Noise blog

Also see the interview with me in the Toronto Star, Alex Ross's Timberbrit shout-out #1 and shout-out#2, the preview article by Adam Rathe in the Brooklyn Paper, and a wonderfully scathing review by a bicoastal blogger.

Stabat Mater Dolorosa

"A stunning new work for string quartet and singers. . .The plain tones, simple harmonies, and the concentration of the musicians makes for an intensely powerful listening experience. Musically beautiful and emotionally gripping, this is a stunning piece and was played with exceptional focus and control by all the musicians."

 - George Grella, The Big City (read the whole review)

Odradek:

"[Odradek] is clearly not hopelessly Kafkaesque. Filled with mood changes, from wild syncopated sections to hazy chordal atmospheres, it led the listener toward one of the most cacophonous concert conclusions in recent memory."

- David Hawley, St Paul Pioneer Press

“Cooper’s goal was to create something intelligible out of seemingly random elements, and in this he succeeded admirably.” 

- David H. Kim, New Haven Independent magazine (read the whole review)

Silver Threads:

“The real headturner was Jacob Cooper's 'Silver threads,' with its cool, downbeat electronics.”
                                                              - Pete Matthews, Feast of Music (read the whole review)

Not Just Another Piece for Solo Bass Drum:

“Unruly, goofy, yet oddly poignant.”           

Postlude:

“Perhaps [one of] the most integrated of the pieces here, purely in the sense of matching the voice of the singer to that of the cello. . . [it] employs ostinati on the cello against sustained tones in the voice - a pleasant combination.”