A native of Ft. Worth, Texas, Courtney Secoy Cohen has been Principal Librarian with the San Diego Symphony since the summer of 2011. Prior to her current position, Courtney served as Assistant Librarian with the San Diego Symphony, Assistant Librarian with the Kansas City Symphony and Assistant Librarian with the Florida West Coast Symphony (now the Sarasota Orchestra). Courtney began her music library career working part-time as needed in the Boston Symphony Orchestra library and the Tanglewood Music Center library. During this time, she also became the first performance librarian for the Boston Conservatory.
An active member of the Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association, Courtney Cohen serves as the Pops Resource Database Manager, as a member of the Marcato committee and as a member of the Errata committee. She served as a panelist at the 2010 MOLA conference and recently contributed an article for the upcoming book, The Music Performance Library: Essays from the Professionals, edited by Russ Girsberger and Laurie Lake.
Courtney Cohen is a graduate of Louisiana State University in oboe performance, where she studied with Linda Strommen, and the New England Conservatory of Music in oboe performance, where she studied with Laura Ahlbeck and John Ferrillo. Courtney has performed with many orchestras, including the Kansas City Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Sarasota Opera and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, among others. Courtney has also participated as an oboist in several music festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Center, the National Orchestral Institute and the Chautauqua Institution, to name a few. In her spare time, Courtney enjoys playing the oboe, English horn, and bagpipes, as well as cooking, reading and volunteering in the community with the Junior League. Courtney also enjoys spending time at home with her husband, Principal Percussionist Gregory Cohen, and studying World War II history.