Flynn studied Music Composition with Agustîn Fernandez and Frank Denyer at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England (BA [honours] 1996) and Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Curran at Mills College in Oakland, California (MA 1998). He was also a private student of Allaudin Mathieu in composition and Tuning Theory.
His original music fits primarily into two categories: neo-traditional fiddle music (monophonic or homophonic) and chamber music (often polyphonic)–the latter consisting mostly of either plucked string music, or other works in extended Just Intonation.
At Dartington he studied Tuning Theory with the late Dr Bob Gilmore who was his Musicology professor at the time. It was through Gilmore that he was indoctrinated into the world of the 20th Century American experimentalist composers Harry Partch, Conlon Nancarrow, Henry Cowell, and James Tenney.
His original chamber music has been performed at Dartington Hall in Devon (UK), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA, Redfern Arts Center in Keene, NH and other venues.
PERFORMANCES
I Always Wanted You to Admire My Fasting (1998)
for four voices, doublebass, and percussion
Prosthetic Ensemble
OPUS 415
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA USA
7 November 1998
Brought to You by the Number 5 (1997)
for four percussionists
Keene State College Percussion Ensemble
directed by Chris Swist
Redfern Center for the Arts
Keene, NH USA
5 March 2009
Planxty Gilmore (2015)
transcribed for Guitar (originally for Adapted Viola)
Tolgahan Çoğulu - microtonal guitar
Austrian Fretless Guitar and Just Intonation Festival
Schärding, Austria
19 September 2015
http://www.schaerding.at/sehens_erlebenswertes/fretless_guitar_just_intonation_festival/index.htm
Two-Part Inventions (2007)
1. for Two Irish Fiddles
2. for Two Bluegrass Mandolins
August Watters & Flynn Cohen - mandolins
The American Mandolin
Brattleboro Music Center
Brattleboro, VT, USA
9 January 2016
&
Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music
Stone Church Arts
Bellows Falls, VT, USA
16 January 2016
New Shapes on the Horizon (2008)
David Flemming - flute, Justin Young - bassoon, Joe Darby - viola
Redfern Arts Center
Keene, NH, USA
9 March 2016
The Unhappy Couple (2016) for mandolin orchestra ~ PREMIER
Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music
Stone Church Arts
Bellows Falls, VT, USA
17 January 2017
https://sca-irc.wildapricot.org/event-2334077
Treelawn (2016) for mandolin quartet (PREMIER) and The Unhappy Couple (2016) for mandolin orchestra
L'Esperance Mandolin Ensemble "Celtic and Celestial"
Canadian-American Club
202 Arlington St, Watertown, MA, USA
18 November 2017
http://lesperancemandolin.com/event/celtic-and-celestial/
RECORDINGS
Treelawn
for Mandolin Quartet (2016)
recorded by Ecco Mandolin Ensemble:
https://eccomando.bandcamp.com/track/treelawn-f-cohen
Planxty Allaudin
for microtonal guitar (2018)
performed by Tufan Kurdoglu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0H9XuurAk8
The Goats Got Into Dad's Pot Plants
for string quartet (2020)
performed by The Partch Quartet:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Demos and excerpts from commercial recording of Flynn's original fiddle music can be found here:
https://soundcloud.com/deadstring