Jonathan Cohen

Jonathan Cohen is a talented young British musician. He is already well known as a conductor, cellist and harpsichord player. Cohen has a keen interest in chamber music and his repertoire includes highly varied works ranging from baroque operas to the great classical symphonies. In 2010 he founded and has since been Artistic Director of the ensemble Arcangelo in addition to serving as Assistant Conductor of the ensemble Arts Florissants. In recent seasons Jonathan Cohen has conducted the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Arcangelo at festivals in Edinburgh and Aldeburgh, the Gustav Mahler Chamber Soloists at the Lucerne Festival, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, English National Opera’s Symphony Orchestra (Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria) and the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (symphonies and concerti by Mozart and Beethoven). Cohen is also a frequent guest at the Glyndebourne Festival where he has conducted the Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra, performing the operas Le nozze di Figaro and L’incoronazione di Poppea. At this festival last year he conducted the opera Hippolyte et Aricie to tremendous acclaim.
Established by Cohen, the ensemble Arcangelo very quickly won acclaim thanks to the musicians’ extremely high performing levels and highly subtle nuancing as well as collaborations with talented soloists.
The ensemble’s engagements for the forthcoming season include performances at festivals in Flanders and Tetbury as well as at New York’s Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall). Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo’s discography features numerous recordings including a disc of cantatas by Porpora and the disc Arias for Guadagni with Iestyn Davies (Hyperion). These discs have received lavish praise from the critics, and in 2012 Arias for Guadagni received a Gramophone prize in the category “Solo Recording”. The ensemble’s most recent recordings include the disc Enchanted Forest with Anna Prohaska on Deutsche Grammophon, the disc Amoretti (music by Mozart and Gluck) with Christiane Karg on Berlin Classics and the disc Handel’s Finest Arias for Base Voice with Christopher Purves on Hyperion. The ensemble’s projects for the 2013–2014 include a recording with Matthew Rose of arias by Mozart that were composed for the singer Francesco Benucci.
Jonathan Cohen also works closely with the ensemble Les Arts Florissants. To mark the ensemble’s thirtieth anniversary, at the invitation of William Christie he conducted two operas by Purcell – Dido and Aeneas and the Dutch National Opera and The Faerie Queene at the Opéra Comique in Paris and the Brooklyn Academy in New York. Recently Jonathan Cohen appeared with the ensemble in Paris and Versailles, performing works by Charpentier and Blow staged by Bruno Ravelli. This season will see the conductor perform with Les Arts Florissants in France, Austria and Germany. Cohen’s engagements for the season also feature performances with the Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Royal National Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a performance of the opera Le nozze di Figaro at the Opéra de Dijon, the Opéra Théâtre Saint-Étienne and a concert with the Chiaroscuro quartet in Bilbao.
In the future, Jonathan Cohen will continue his collaboration with the ensembles Arcangelo and Les Arts Florissants and he will frequently be appearing as a guest conductor.