Don Cooper
A career that includes opening for major acts, teaching, and songwriting.
Don Cooper, who prefers to be called "Cooper," performs frequently in St. Augustine both as a solo act and in various groups such as the Thick and Thin String Band.
Over the years, Cooper crafted a music career that included a diversity of genres, audiences, and media. He wrote and performed rock and folk music in the 60s and 70s, touring and releasing a number of albums. In the 80s, he was a founding member of the band Cooper Dodge, which released a record on ATCO and toured nationally. During his burgeoning career, Cooper opened for Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago, and performed on the Johnny Carson Show.
In the 90s, Cooper wrote scores for television and the movies, and moved into writing songs for children, releasing a number of books and cassettes and CDs through Random House Publishing. Those titles include Dino Songs, Musical Songs and Games, Merry Christmas Songs, Hanukkah Songs, and Boogie Woogie Bugs.
In the 90s Cooper and his family moved to Connecticut where he became a master teaching artist for the state, which led him to a successful career as the director of music in his local school system. His 2014 song, "The Course of Time," tells a poignant, yet grateful tale about the compromises Cooper and many professional musicians have made.
"It got too hard to live in both worlds.
One foot on, one off the stage.
A guitar hero in the clubs at night.
Invisible by light of day."
Cooper retired from teaching and moved to St. Augustine after his own children were grown. "I retired after I had conducted an AP choir of high school students made up of many of the kids I'd taught when they were in kindergarten."
Here, under the "old St. Augustine moon," Cooper continues to write and perform new material. He can be heard singing his own compositions as well as folk standards and songs by other St. Augustine favorites at various venues around town, and will release a number of CDs of his original music later this year.
