The evening begins with Havdalah and continues with a wonderful multi-media presentation of Israeli Songs – Then and Today. The presentation features recorded music as well as live performances by Dr. Cohen and Cantor Perper. Keeping with the theme of the evening, Israeli food and drink will be served.

Gilad Cohen is an active composer, performer and theorist in various genres including concert music, rock and music for theatre. Recent and upcoming engagements include commissions from Barlow Endowment for the Arts, Concert Artists Guild, parlance Chamber Concerts and park Avenue Synagogue; performances by Lysander piano Trio, Israeli Chamber project, Tre Voci (Kim Kashkashian, Marina Piccinini and Sivan Magen), violist Paul Neubauer, and principal players of the metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Budapest Festival Orchestra; and releases on Albany Records, Naxos/Delos and Parma Recordings.

Notable awards include the 2016 Barlow prize, the Israeli Prime Minister Award for Composers, and top prizes in international competitions in the US, Europe, Asia and the middle-East. Gilad performs regularly with various ensembles around the US, playing piano, bass and guitar. An Assistant professor of music at Ramapo College of New Jersey, Gilad holds a Ph.D. in composition from Princeton University. His research about structure in the music of pink Floyd has resulted in publications on academic journals, lectures in the US and Israel, and the first-ever academic conference devoted to the band that Gilad produced in 2014 at Princeton University together with composer Dave Molk.