Will Marion Cook was enrolled at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio at age 13. He won a scholarship to study the violin in Berlin, Germany at age 15, and in 1889, he debuted as a concert violinist in Washington, D.C. He also attended the National Conservatory of Music in New York under Antonin Dvorák. By the time Cook arrived in New York in the mid 1890s, he had been an orchestra director and had toured major U.S. cities. He parlayed his classical training into an illustrious career as a musical theater composer. In 1898 he composed the monumental musical Clorindy; or, the Origin of the Cakewalk, with Paul Laurence Dunbar as librettist and lyricist. Cook had intended to offer the play to Bert Williams and George Walker, but they were unavailable, touring on the west coast. He gained the support of Ernest Hogan and the show opened to rousing applause. The show was not uncontroversial, however, as the play received criticism in the contemporary press for presenting a degrading reminder of slavery⁴⁰.

Cook also received criticism for his work from Bob Cole. According to James Weldon Johnson's autobiography, Cook believed that Negroes should eschew "white patterns" and not try to do what whites could inevitably do better. Cole, on the other hand, was confident that black composers could match "the white artist on the latter's own field" and should strive to create compositions that rivaled those of white composers⁴¹. According to Johnson they seldom met without a clash. Both men "tended toward eccentricity, both were hot tempered, and the argument did not always oscillate between their divergent point of view; id did not always keep itself above personalities."⁴² Cook followed Clorindy with Jes Lak White Folks in 1899, The Casino Girl in 1900, and The Policy Players also in 1900. Although these productions were relatively unsuccessful, Cook went on to compose great successes starring George Walker and Bert Williams: In Dahomey in 1902, Abssinia in 1906, and In Bandana Land in 1907.

In addition to the legendary Williams and Walker productions, Cook enjoyed great success as a member of the production team of Motts' Pekin Theater (for more on the Pekin Theater see Joe Jordan). With Joe Jordan he wrote music for the musicals Friend From Georgia in 1906 and Zululand in 1907. He also composed music for the comedy Darkydom with James Reese Europe in 1915.

In 1919 Cook toured in Europe with his New York Syncopated Orchestra. Upon returning to the United States in 1922, he continued to tour with orchestras and promoted concerts for legends including Paul Robeson. In 1929 he collaborated with Will Vodery to write and produce the musical Swing Along, which premiered at Harlem's Lafayette Theater.