Michele Adler Cohen

Dr. Michele Adler Cohen is a classical pianist born in Bahia, Brazil. She has extensive performing and teaching experience in the United States, Brazil, and Beijing, China.

Throughout her professional career, Michele has combined her interests in academic work with performing and teaching. She is a winner of the Artists International Auditions of New York and several national piano competitions in Brazil.

Michele earned her doctorate in piano performance from Indiana University, where she studied with Michel Block, Michel Beroff, Arnaldo Cohen, and György Sebők. As a recitalist, she continues to perform concerts featuring both standard classical and Brazilian repertoires. Highlights of her performing career include concerts devoted to the music of Brazilian composers Heitor Villa-Lobos and Marlos Nobre at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York), Steinway Performance Hall (New York), and a live broadcast performance at the Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago. She has also performed solo and chamber recitals in major cities throughout her native Brazil as well as across the United States, including appearances in San Diego (Atheneum Series in La Jolla), Washington, D.C. (Brazilian Embassy), Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), and Mesa Arts Center (AZ), among others.

Most recently, Michele developed a program that integrates art, music, and language, which was implemented at international schools in Beijing, China. She serves on the board of the Phoenix Music Teachers Association and organizes the annual Dean and Carolyn Elder Piano Competition of Arizona. Michele is often sought as a music adjudicator for the Arizona Study Program state examinations and has served as an expert witness on musical copyright issues in the case Fletcher v. Fletcher in the state of Arizona.

As a passionate advocate for music education, Michele founded Paradise Valley Music Academy of Arizona, where she mentors piano students both nationally and internationally. Many of her students have been admitted to prestigious piano performance programs, including Berklee College of Music, Indiana University (Bloomington), the Lamont School of Music (Denver), and the University of Arizona (Tucson).