Samuel Cooperman; Founded Santa Monica Mandolin Group
Samuel Cooperman, 81, founder and music director of the Santa Monica Mandolin Orchestra and a lifelong devotee of that instrument. He was also an accomplished pianist and violinist. Cooperman moved to Los Angeles from New York in 1945 and worked for the next 30 years in real estate management. He retired in 1977 and devoted the rest of his life to music, forming the Santa Monica group in 1978 while also teaching the instrument. The orchestra provided hundreds of concerts at city and county parks, senior citizens’ homes and other activity centers. In Santa Monica on Jan. 28.
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