Joel Cooper Bass, guitar, vocal. and songwriting

Joel is a founding member of Kennedy's Kitchen now living in exile in Minnesota.  In addition to playing the bass in the early days of the Kitchen, Joel is a gifted songwriter and singer.  He returns to South Bend as often as he can to perform with the Kitchen and with area folk musicians joHn Kennedy, Judy Berg, and Noah and Irene Carver. He has recorded with Noah and Irene Carver on their 2000 release You're Always There. He is working with joHn on his upcoming solo CD and with Judy Berg on her upcoming CD.  He brings to folk and Irish music over 20 years of singing tenor with various choral groups, notably with the Notre Dame Chorale and the Vesper Chorale. He states that his last big choral gig was singing Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" with the South Bend Symphony.

His composition "Land By The Sea" is on the Kitchen's debut CD.  His composition "Immigrant Song" is on the Kitchen's second CD, "Music in the Glen".

By day, Joel is the Director of Information Technology at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.  He also is a member of two Minnesota-based bands--Prairie Creek Group and Jellystone Yogi, and has started doing choral music again.