26 Facts About Lindsay Cooper

Lindsay Cooper was an English bassoon and oboe player and composer.

Lindsay Cooper collaborated with a number of musicians, including Chris Cutler and Sally Potter, and co-founded the Feminist Improvising Group.

Lindsay Cooper wrote scores for film and TV and a song cycle Oh Moscow which was performed live around the world in 1987.

Lindsay Cooper recorded a number of solo albums, including Rags, The Gold Diggers, and Music For Other Occasions.

In September 2013, Lindsay Cooper died from the illness, in London, at the age of 62.

Lindsay Cooper began piano lessons at the age of 11, but switched to bassoon a few years later.

Lindsay Cooper played in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and became a member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

When Lindsay Cooper returned to the United Kingdom in 1971, she left classical music and became a part of the Canterbury scene.

Lindsay Cooper joined the progressive rock band Comus, and although she only remained with the band for a year, it changed her whole approach to music.

Lindsay Cooper added oboe and flute to her instrument repertoire, and started doing session work for other musicians, including Mike Oldfield on his album Hergest Ridge.

In late 1973, Henry Cow asked Lindsay Cooper to join them as a replacement for Geoff Leigh who had recently left.

However, following their European tour supporting Captain Beefheart, the group reorganized themselves and asked Lindsay Cooper to leave, performing as a quartet on their Scandinavian tour of September 1974.

In 1977, Lindsay Cooper became one of Henry Cow's principal composers and contributed a number of compositions to their repertoire, including half of their final album, Western Culture.

Lindsay Cooper started playing soprano saxophone and piano during this period and began exploring improvisation techniques.

Late in 1977, during Henry Cow's last years, Lindsay Cooper co-founded the Feminist Improvising Group with Sally Potter, Maggie Nichols, Georgie Born and Irene Schweizer.

Lindsay Cooper kept a foot in the Canterbury scene by re-uniting briefly with Comus and playing on their second album, recording with Steve Hillage, and contributing to Hatfield and the North's The Rotters' Club album.

In 1983 Lindsay Cooper collaborated with Chris Cutler and formed the English avant-rock group News from Babel, composing all the music for their two albums, Work Resumed on the Tower and Letters Home.

Lindsay Cooper's best known work is her 1987 song-cycle Oh Moscow.

In 1990, Lindsay Cooper spent a few months in Australia where she gave solo performances on bassoon, saxophone and electronics.

Lindsay Cooper collaborated with Australian singer, writer and theatre director Robyn Archer, arranging and composing the music for Archer's play Cafe Fledermaus, and Sahara Dust, a large scale jazz vocal piece with lyrics by Archer.

Lindsay Cooper returned to Switzerland in 1991 performing in Brennan's "SinFONietta" at the Lucerne Festival.

Lindsay Cooper released two collections of her contemporary dance pieces Schrodinger's Cat and An Angel on the Bridge in 1991 and performed her own composition "Concerto for Sopranino Saxophone and Strings" at the British Conservatory in London in 1992, a piece commissioned by the European Women's Orchestra.

Lindsay Cooper became aware that she had multiple sclerosis in the "late days" of Henry Cow, but did not disclose this fact to the musical community and continued performing right up until the late 1990s when the illness forced her to retire.

In spite of this, Lindsay Cooper remained a highly respected and influential figure in the musical world.

Lindsay Cooper's works are regularly performed and even taught throughout the world.

Lindsay Cooper died from the illness on 18 September 2013, aged 62.