Dave Cope is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer with deep roots in the Philadelphia music scene. Creating in a wide range of genres including power pop, folk, R&B and classical, he has amassed a catalog of original music that rivals the best in the business.

Cope started singing in the choir of his local church and began teaching himself guitar at the age of twelve. By age fourteen he was playing in his first band covering songs by Neil Young, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Despite being admitted to numerous highly esteemed conservatories he would forsake the career path of a classical tenor choosing to focus more on a life of creation and self expression in multiple musical genres. 

His late teens and early twenties found him writing and performing what were to be the first of hundreds of original songs, many of which would go on to win awards, garner airplay and find homes in Indie films. In addition to songwriting Cope would study the rich tradition of South Indian classical music with Tanjore Viswanathan and composition and music theory with Harold Boatrite. He fell in love with the music of Funkadelic, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré, influences that can be felt to this day in the tapestry of sounds that comprise his work. 

It was around this time that Cope started writing for film and the stage, composing music for his friend’s student film and accompanying music for a comedy troupe at Wesleyan University. Since then, Cope has continued to contribute songs and compose scores for theater and television. He has worked with Philadelphia’s Quintessence Theatre since its inception and licensed his music to film and television shows such as Fox Searchlight’s 2017 release Patti Cake$, Apple TV’s 2023 series Manhunt and Disney’s 2024 adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. 

As a gigging and session musician, Cope has collaborated with many heavy hitters in the Philadelphia area and beyond including Ron Aikens, Alec Ounsworth, Andres Villamil, Fred Berman, Santigold, Eric Bazilian, Henry Hirsch, Tony Reyes, John Byrne and Jude Flannery. His ability to synthesize various disparate stylistic elements, providing beautiful music based on his client’s needs in a timely, professional and stress free manner has inspired one colleague to compare his abilities to that of a living, breathing Chat GPT, generating copious tailor made content on command but with a singular human touch rarely if ever found in the workings of a machine. 

In recent years Cope has been releasing albums under the name Dave Cope and the Sass with the help of drummer Fred Berman and co-producer Andres Villamil. His 2022 power pop release “Julee” was highly reviewed by many blogs and publications, being awarded the number one spot on David Bash’s International Pop Overthrow best of list for that year. You can find hard copies of many of his releases on the Kool Kat Music label.