Carl Cohn Haste

Who was Carl Cohn Haste?

Carl Cohn Haste was a Danish pianist, organist and composer. Blind from the age of 5 after an eye inflammation, he became music teacher at the Royal Blind Institute, composer and the first president of Danish Association of the Blind.

From 1883–1892 he was a pupil at the Blind Institute. Then he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 1893–1895 under Victor Bendix and Orla Rosenhof. In 1896 he made his debut as concert pianist and from 1898 he was employed as the Blind Institute as a music teacher. Most of the blind organists who were employed in the early 20th century were trained by him. Alongside his teaching work and organization work, he was in the younger years regularly away on concert tours across Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

In 1928 Carl Cohn was awarded the Knight of the Dannebrog.