Next step for Cat after high school was UCLA where he was a music major and studied counterpoint and composition. His teachers including renowned composers like Roy Harris and Henri Lazarof who encouraged him to go into the classics. However, classical music at that time was so abstract and dissonant, Cat longed for music his friends and peers would understand. At the same time he got caught up in the folk and rock music of the '60s, learned guitar and studied folk music.

Disappointed with the overprofessorial sound of his teachers he took refuge in the folklore and theater arts departments where he wrote folk songs and played piano behind several UCLA theater productions including one where he recited a few lines as a pianist in a brothel in a Kurt Weill play.

He would go on to grad school at Cal State LA where he became an instructor in folk music for a few years.

Cat's Childhood

Cat's Education

Cat's Gigs

Cat Cohen & The Canary Sisters

Pop Song Study and Success

Cat as a Journalist

Cat goes back to the Theater

Cat Cohen Today