American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between acclaimed saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins and composer Jacob Cooper, a 2020 Pew Fellow. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

Immanuel Wilkins is a Saxophonist, Composer, Arranger, and Bandleader from the greater Philadelphia-area. While growing up, he honed his skills in the church and studied in programs dedicated to teaching jazz music like the Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts. Immanuel earned his bachelor’s degree in Music at Juillard (studying with the saxophonists Bruce Williams and the late Joe Temperley) while simultaneously establishing himself as an in-demand sideman working and/or recording with artists like Jason Moran, the Count Basie Orchestra, Delfeayo Marsalis, Joel Ross, Aaron Parks, Gerald Clayton, Gretchen Parlato, Lalah Hathaway, Solange Knowles, Bob Dylan, and Wynton Marsalis. It was also during this same period that he formed his quartet featuring his long-time bandmates: Micah Thomas (piano), Daryl Johns (bass) and Kweku Sumbry (drums). Being a bandleader and having a working group for over four years has allowed Immanuel to grow both as a composer and arranger — and has led to him receiving a number of commissions including, most recently, from The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, The Jazz Gallery Artist Residency Commission Program (A collaboration with Sidra Bell Dance NY, 2020 ) and The Kimmel Center Artist in Residence for 2020 (a collaboration with photographer Rog Walker and videographer David Dempewolf) Being emerged in the scene at a young age and sharing the stage with various jazz masters, has inspired Immanuel to pursue his goal of being a positive force in music and society. Through studying the human pathos of the music and the culture of jazz, Immanuel aspires to bring people together through the commonality of love and belief in this music. His debut recording, Omega — produced by Jason Moran— will be released on Blue Note Recordings on August 7, 2020.

Jacob Cooper enjoys collaborating with performers, poets, and directors, as well as with machines, environments, and questionable histories. Lauded as “richly talented” (The New York Times) and a “conceptually intrepid, sharp young composer” (Pitchfork), Jacob has fulfilled commissions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Eighth Blackbird, the Calder Quartet, singer Jodie Landau, cellist Ashley Bathgate, Ensemble Connect (formerly ACJW), The Living Earth Show, Mobius Percussion, and trombonist Matthew Wright. His music has also been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the Carmina Slovenica choir, the JACK Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, the Argus Quartet, the Dither Quartet, the NOW Ensemble, vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Mellissa Hughes, and pianists Vicky Chow, Timo Andres, and Kathleen Supové. Jacob’s works have appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, Soundbox (San Francisco), the MATA Festival (New York), the Incubator Arts Project (New York), the Spoleto Festival (Charleston), the Wordless Music concert series at the Miller Theater (New York), Operadagen Rotterdam, Radialsystem V (Berlin), and the Choregie Festival (Slovenia). Pitchfork praised Jacob’s recent album Terrain (New Amsterdam Records) as “vital and compulsive,” highlighting its “surprisingly magnetic meditations on time” that are “firmly rooted both in the distant past and music much closer to the present,” while San Francisco Classical Voice characterized the album as a “beautiful way to look at sky when sky is not available.”. Also dedicated to teaching, Jacob is an Associate Professor of Music at West Chester University and holds a doctorate in composition from the Yale School of Music. He lives in Philadelphia, PA with his wife Claudia and children Asher and Lia.