Staff & faculty

Shane Scott Cook (b. 1994) is a composer, performer, and songwriter whose work explores themes of community, connection, nature, and the queer experience. His music, shaped by an eclectic background as a classical percussionist, jazz singer, folk enthusiast, and musical theater aficionado, has been commissioned and performed by Del Sol Quartet, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Salastina, Stare at the Sun, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Choral Arts Initiative, Duo Cortona, and Hindustani vocalist Saili Oak.
He served as Teaching Artist-in-Residence at the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music (2023–25), where he taught piano, guitar, percussion, and music theory to public school students in rural Northern California. Recent appointments include Composer-in-Residence for Del Sol Quartet’s 2025 ChamberFest, Composer Fellow for the 2025 Akropolis Chamber Music Festival, and 2024 Sounds Promising Young Composer Fellow with Salastina.

In 2025, Shane’s premieres included bloom for Quintet Attacca and mezzo-soprano Quinn Middleman (EarTaxi Festival), Namesake for tenor and piano (Boston Singers’ Resource and Catalyst New Music), speak, winner of The Capital Hearings’ Young Composers’ Competition, and Neon Landscape, a string trio funded by the Moody Center at Rice University. In the same year, his choral works received awards and/or recognition from Stare at the Sun, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Choral Arts Initiative, and the EcoVoice Project. Other recent highlights include the 2025 Dragon Prize in Choral Music, first prize at Fourth Coast Ensemble’s 2024 Chicago SongSlam, and the premiere of The Distance Between for soprano Lindsay Kesselman and UT Austin’s New Music Ensemble.

An Illinois native, Shane is currently based in Houston, TX and began doctoral studies at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in 2025. You can learn more and listen to his work at www.shanescottcook.com.

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