Franklin Cohen (born July 28, 1946[1]) is an American clarinetist, best known for his tenure of 39 seasons as Principal Clarinet of the Cleveland Orchestra.
[2] Cohen gave more than 200 soloist performances with the orchestra, including at Carnegie Hall under Vladimir Ashkenazy.
[3] His Deutsche Grammophon recording of Debussy's Première rhapsodie conducted by Pierre Boulez received two Grammy Awards in 1996,[4] and he was the first clarinetist to win the ARD International Music Competition, in 1968.
[5] He is also a co-founder of ChamberFest Cleveland, a summer chamber music festival, and is head of the Clarinet Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
[6] He has recorded, for Decca Records, a disc of Brahms and Schumann with Vladimir Ashkenazy at the piano,[7] the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with conductor Christoph von Dohnányi,[8] and the Brahms Clarinet Trio with Ashkenazy and cellist Stephen Geber.