Solomon Bernstein Cohen (Sol B. Cohen) (1891-1988) was born January 11, 1891, in Urbana, IL. Sol was named after his grandfather, Solomon Bernstein. He lived at 511 West Elm Street in Urbana. Sol first began violin lessons with Charles Foster in Urbana when he was about nine years old. When Sol was 12 he went to Chicago to study with the French violinist, Emile Sauret. In 1908, Sol went to Prague, Czechoslovakia where he spent eight hours daily practicing violin, but Sol was not satisfied with the lessons so he left for Budapest, Hungary to study with Jenii Hubay. He returned to the US, and in 1912 he got a job in the first violin section of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He earned thirty-five dollars a week. In 1914, Sol taught at Peoria Musical College.

In 1917, the United States entered World War I on the allied side with France, Russia, and Britain. Sol tried to enter the military service but they wouldn't let him because his eyesight was bad. A few months later
they let him join the army to help take care of the horses. Later he became a spy and worked for US Army Intelligence. He knew many languages which was very useful for his work on the front lines in France. During the next years, Sol studied and traveled in Europe and he was a violinist, a composer, and an accompanist. He was also part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Sol spent many summers at the
MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and over the years he met poets, writers, and other musicians like Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss.

Sol was the first conductor of the Champaign-Urbana Community Arts Symphony Orchestra and he was a violinist for the Champaign-Urbana Symphony until 1974. Sol played the piano for silent movies in local theaters for a long time and he taught violin and piano to young musicians in this area. People from Champaign-Urbana who took piano classes from Sol B. Cohen remember that when they played a wrong note he would tap his forehead with his hand and say, "Oh, no!"

In the early 1980s, an award was started to honor Sol B. Cohen. The award gives scholarship money to young people studying music in Champaign County. For more than 100 years the Cohen family was active in the musical life of Urbana-Champaign. The building Sol's father owned is still here in Urbana on the comer of Race and Main Streets, and it still has the name Nat H. Cohen on it. The Cohen family was one of the founders of Sinai Temple, located in Champaign.

Sol died September 29, 1988 at the Champaign County Nursing Home in Urbana. Sol was 97 years old.