​Welcome! 

Where Do We Go?
features 2017 Music OMI fellows Stephen Cohen- voice and cigar box guitar, Yuan-Chen Li- piano, and Alberto Novello- electronics recorded at the Ghent, New York Art OMI Barn by Alberto Novello

photos are from Stephen's 2017 residency at DeFenicks Art Center in Mortsel, Belgium and 2017 Music OMI residency in Ghent, N.Y.

Where Do We Go? by 3 Hand Stephen 
is available as a physical vinyl album                                                                  and a downloadable digital album     and follow Stephen on Bandcamp  

above: Ally the Cat features Stephen on voice and cigar box guitar,                            above: Stephen playing his one of a kind, custom-made miniature guitar   paying homage to his faithful cat at home during the 2020 Pandemic.                         

                         above: 2 songs. This is a Test and We Could Live in Love, played and filmed by Stephen at home during the 2020 stay at home times    

above:  Stephen plays his original, homemade 1 String Thing instrument                above:  Ride the Train with Stephen on cigar box guitar 

 Above:  Stephen performs with pianist Yuan-Chen Li and vocalist Maeve Stier           and with a fine cast of musicians and dancers                                                                                                                                                                  

                    above:  The Closing List, originally recorded in 2001,                                                               above: Stephen performs The King of 3 Strings and talks music    has taken on new meaning in light of the 2020 Pandemic restaurant closures.                                                    

below: Rain, Rain, Rain, which Stephen sees plenty of in Oregon                 below: Stephen performs x times y=? on acoustic guitar                 

below:  What's Wrong  on miniature guitar        The Road West on acoustic guitar                       below:  Read the lyrics and hear Stephen's song, 
 Atomic Clock  voice and cigar box guitar                  with Yuan-Chen Li on guqin:                                                                                    Miniature Planet:                :                                                              

What's wrong, what's wrong with us people? Why do we hate, why do we make the same mistakes? Why does push come to shove, why can't we love?

Stephen with Yuan-Chen Li at the Grant Street Studio in Portland.

Click here to see Stephen perform Excuse Me, So-Called President and Miniature Planet at the Portland Musicians Rising Up Concert.

​Stephen talks about 2 of his instruments and plays A Pug Named Fred and Interplanetary Chatter at the close of the Music OMI
Guerilla Improvisation Concert at the Basilica in Hudson, N.Y. :

Above: Stephen performs I Give You the Universe     Above: Stephen performs 
and What Now? on his original,                                   The King of 1 String on his
homemade musical sculptures                                   1 String Thing  instrument.                      

Miniature Planet                                                                                by Stephen Cohen                                      I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around,  I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around, with miniature sights and miniature sounds and miniature cities and miniature towns and miniature people with miniature brains and miniature cars and miniature trains and miniature houses and miniature planes and miniature clouds with miniature rain and miniature rivers and a miniature sea and a miniature forest with miniature trees. 
I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around,  I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around, with miniature sights and miniature sounds and miniature cities and miniature towns. There was a miniature election, with miniature selections and miniature choices with miniature voices in a miniature debate, with miniature candidates,  with miniature platforms and miniature stands and miniature minds with miniature plans. 
I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around, I saw a miniature planet, slowly spinning around, so I'm singing this song with my miniature guitar, and here we are. 

Ride the Train from Here was the closing piece of the 2017 Music OMI Concert in the Fields. Music OMI is an international artist residency, and Ride the Train from Here features Stephen with artists from Peru, Nigeria, United Kingdom and Germany:

Stephen composed Garden of Bees on a beer-can guitar he made as an Artist in Residence in Belgium, and later created this video: 

Stephen used a beer can from a local Belgium beer for his hand-made beer-can guitar.

He composed the piece in a studio overlooking the bees, performed it in concert, then recorded it back in Portland.

Above: Talk to Me was recorded at Stephen's residency at Jack Straw Studios in Seattle

Below: he plays at the C.B. Gitty Juke Shack Stage in New Hampshire in 2017:                               and at his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon in 2020:       

This video below has Stephen's first album, The Tree People,                   And you can hear Thomas from the 1984 album by the Tree People,
recorded in 1979 in a studio in the woods near Eugene, Oregon,             with Stephen on voice and acoustic guitar, Jeff Stier on recorder,
and reissued in this century by record companies in Japan and Spain.       Jeremy Cohen on electric bass, and Denis Mochary on drums:      

​  Below: music videos created by Stephen with songs from the 3rd Tree People album, It's My Story: Legends of the Tree People and Living with the Animals:

​
​30 YEARS AGO acoustic guitar with Oregon high desert sounds is an album of solo acoustic guitar pieces originally recorded by Stephen for The Golden Desert, a New Directions "enviromusic" cassette produced by Diz Greer in 1990, which features Stephen playing acoustic guitar and percussion, with Oregon high desert sounds recorded by Diz Greer.  download 30 YEARS AGO at Stephen's Bandcamp page

Stephen created this short film/music video/work of art, the Cistern Symphony, at Fort Worden, Port Townsend, Washington in 2012, with a team of musicians and artists during his Centrum residencies. It was shown at the AVI Festival in Jerusalem, Israel in December of 2016.

click to see and hear:  

Stephen leading the parade at the Wilsonville Festival of Arts, playing a Khaen, a Thai mouth organ, while artist and educator Angennette Escobar plays Stephen's homemade gong. 

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​Stephen created his sculptural percussion instrument in the late 20th century.                         and here he is playing homemade sculptures and gongs in 2020:

Here Comes the Band, Give Me That Toy, Mr. Knickerbocker, and Baseball, Baseball are on Stephen's children's album, Here Comes the Band.     Click here to see and hear more of Stephen's children's music and read about his interactive children's music performances. 

"Here Comes the Band" painting by Christopher Shotola-Hardt

Stephen with guest singers at the Long Island Children's Museum. photo by Ben Sussman

Above: Stephen's Baseball, Baseball video

"You Need to Get to Know Me" is from a 2001 Oregon Public Broadcasting Art Beat show featuring Stephen's residency at Wilsonville High School, where he assisted special education students, along with several music and art students, in creating instruments out of found and recycled materials, composing music and writing songs, producing a CD, Junk Jam, and performing at the Wilsonville Festival of Arts.