Finding Harmony
UO senior musician Hasina Cohen overcomes injury, finds success
The sharp burning in Hasina Cohen’s hands came on suddenly.
It was near the end of her freshman year, and the piano major from Corvallis, Oregon, was practicing day and night to keep up with the graduate students with whom she studied in the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance.
She tried to play through the injury. She took a week off. Then a year. The pain wouldn't go away. She tried physical therapy. Finally, however, she decided it was time to give up the piano and turn her talents elsewhere.
She didn't know it at the time, but the decision would change the course of her life, musically and academically. Leaving the piano behind, she focused her studies on music history and ethnomusicology.
“It was so scary,” says Cohen, now a senior. “Music was the most important thing in my life. I knew who I was at the piano.”
During one of her classes, she fell in love with Balkan folk music.
“It felt like the sound I’d been searching for my entire life,” she says.
Her hand injury prevented her from playing the piano, but nothing could keep her away from music. On the advice of a teacher, she tried singing.
“I was terrified to explore my voice. I was really nervous about it,” Cohen says.
That winter, she joined the University of Oregon East European Folk Music Ensemble, and she has been singing ever since.
Last summer, she attended a week-long Balkan music and dance camp in California. The camp, organized by Mark Levy, an instructor of ethnomusicology at the UO, inspired Cohen musically and academically.
“It was a week in the woods with these amazing singers and musicians,” Cohen says. “I came to be fascinated by who these people were and how they came to the Balkan music scene and what the music meant to them.”
Cohen’s fascination with Balkan music, coupled with her musical exploration, formed the basis of her honors thesis in the Robert Donald Clark Honors College. As part of her research, Cohen interviewed the musicians and blended their thoughts and feelings with her own. She also started performing with KEF, a Eugene-based band that performs Balkan folk music.
“I feel so lucky to have discovered this project,” Cohen says. “It combines my love of performing with my ongoing search to find something to dedicate my life to. It’s just been amazing.”
Click here for a brief video feature on Cohen.