Pianist Coen graduated from the
Conservatoire de Paris, where she studied piano with
Élie-Miriam Delaborde. She gave her first known concert in the
Kurhaus in
Scheveningen in 1896. At 17 years of age, she played the
Hungarian Rhapsody no. 11 (
Liszt) and the
Capriccio Brillant (
Mendelssohn), accompanied by the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Frans Mannstädt. Her future husband, Jacques van Lier, played 2nd cello that afternoon. Shortly afterwards, she moved to
Berlin. Coen was solo-pianist in a concert of the Berlin Philharmoniker conducted by Josef Řebíček, performing the
Piano Concerto (
Schumann). The next year, Coen obtained a contract for a series of 45 concerts throughout Germany. With her fiancé, she was part of a chamber music trio, with violinist Margarethe Baginsky. The German newspaper
"Neuen Zeitschrift für Musik" found it a worrisome sign of possible times ahead, should women's rights activists get their way, that the two women overpowered the man. In April 1905, Coen and Van Lier gave concerts in
Leipzig and
Erfurt with the German
contralto Grete Hentschel. They opened with the
Variations on a Rococo theme (
Tchaikovsky). The critics were especially pleased with Coen's playing. Coen also tried her hand at composing: between 1896 and 1906, three of her compositions were published in Paris in the series "
Pensée: pour piano". Coen became famous as
collaborative pianist and
répétiteur. As early as 1908, she accompanied
Alexander Heinemann on a tour through the Netherlands and England. Her debut in New York was in
Carnegie Hall in January 1915, when she supported
Olive Fremstad on the piano. She became the official pianist of
Leon Rothier of the
Metropolitan Opera with whom she toured Canada. In 1920, Coen spent nine weeks on tour with
Marie Rappold, including Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas. In addition to serving as Rappold's accompanist on the piano, Coen performed as a soloist, playing Rhapsody No. 11 and
Consolations (Liszt) as well as
Poèmes by
Dubois, music that she frequently performed, that was sometimes complemented by encore performances of
Waltz in C-sharp minor (
Chopin) and the
Gavotte from
Iphigénie en Tauride (
Glück) in the arrangement by
Brahms. In 1929, she accompanied Rappold for concerts in the Netherlands, the birthplace of Coen's parents and grandparents. They played the
Koninklijk Concertgebouw and
Diligentia.
Opera conductor and vocal coach Coen was reportedly the first woman in the US known to conduct an opera, according to the
New York Review (February 10, 1917) in an article entitled, “Woman Conducts
Carmen Performance at
Garden Theatre: Mme. Coen is First of Sex to Wield Baton in
Grand Opera in America”, which quotes Coen's response to a question about her dress: The opera was staged by the Cosmopolitan Opera Company and featured
Marta Wittkowska as Carmen, Enrico Arenson as Don Jose and Auguste Bouillez as Escamillo. Among the singers who coached with Coen were
Marion Telva,
Julia Culp,
Jeanne Gordon,
Carl Jörn,
Orville Harrold,
Marie Tiffany,
Geneviève Vix,
Claire Dux and many others. Her career as conductor continued in 1921 when she worked with Leon M. Kramer and conducted
La Juive, at the Lexington Opera House in New York under the auspices of the Jewish American Opera Company, the first time a Grand Opera was performed in the US in
Yiddish. After this, Coen focused on her role as vocal coach until in 1944 when she became the musical director for her third opera,
Engelbert Humperdinck´s
Hansel and Gretel, presented by the
University of Miami School of Music, where she had worked since 1943 as a vocal trainer. Coen died in
Miami, Florida, in 1952, at age 73. == Awards ==