Professor Veronika Wolf Cohen is professor emeritus at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Born in 1944 in Budapest, Hungary, she is a music educator,  researcher, and peace activist.

She has taught generations of music teachers who share her ongoing search for the most effective way to open up the world of music to all, as listeners, performers, and creators.

Cohen’s observational research of young children’s free musical play led to the discovery that movement is the source of musical thinking and feeling. This led to the development of the pedagogic tool of the musical mirror, which  is a concrete, visible expression of the cognitive activity by which the mind organizes a given set of sounds into music. The musical mirror reunites musical gestures with their kinesthetic roots and serves as a bridge between the listener and the musical work. Musical mirrors are widely used in Israel as well as abroad to facilitate significant entry into the musical experience.

Cohen’s work has influenced aspects of the national curriculum, and the “Touch the Music“ project focusing on active engagement with complex musical works is culminating in a live concert in Jerusalem as well as the periphery.

Cohen was instrumental in the establishment of the Oriental Music Department at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and initiated the program "Musical Dialogues between Jews and Arabs", in which students and schoolchildren from both sectors learn about the musical culture of the other, create, play, and listen together to joint concerts.



She has been active on behalf of human rights, refugees, and immigrants, and in  promoting Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. She hopes that her legacy will continue to shape music education and deepens the culture of listening, creativity, and peace.