Biography

Jonathan Cohen is one of Britain's finest young musicians. He has forged a remarkable career with notable success as a conductor, cellist and keyboardist. He is well known for his passion and commitment to chamber music which he expands to diverse activities such as baroque opera and the classical symphonic repertoire. He is Artistic Director of Arcangelo and Associate Conductor of Les Arts Florissants.

Recent conducting highlights have included Aix en Provence Festival with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Mozart), Edinburgh Festival and Aldeburgh Festival with Arcangelo (Handel and Porpora), Lucerne Festival with Mahler Chamber Soloists (Bach), Monteverdi's Return of Ulysses at English National Opera and a tour of Asia with the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields (Mozart and Beethoven symphonies and concerti).

This season Jonathan Cohen returned to Glyndebourne on Tour to conduct Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Irish Chamber Orchestra. This season he also makes  debuts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Het Residentie Orchestra, RTE Ireland, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and Tiroler Sinfonieorchester. He will take up his position of Artistic Director at Tetbury Festival.

With Arcangelo, Jonathan's recently created ensemble has already a varied and busy diary of engagements this season, including Musikverein Wien, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, and the Tetbury Festival amongst others. Arcangelo has been gaining fast recognition for exceptional performances and for collaborating with distinguished soloists at the highest level. Busy in the recording studio Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen have been recently released to five star reviews with Porpora cantatas and Arias for Guadagni with Iestyn Davies on Hyperion. Most recently released was a disc of arias with Christiane Karg (Mozart, Gluck) on Berlin Classics, Handel on Hyperion with Christopher Purves and future releases will include baroque arias on Deutsche Grammophon with Anna Prohaska.

Jonathan enjoys a close relationship with Les Arts Florissants and for their 30th anniversary season he collaborated with William Christie conducting performances of Dido and Aeneas (Netherlands Opera), Purcell's Fairy Queen (Opéra Comique and Brooklyn Academy New York). His recent performances with Les Arts Florissants have been a double bill of Charpentier and Blow in Paris and Versailles staged by Bruno Ravella.

In the coming seasons, Jonathan intends to focus his energies on developing Arcangelo whilst enjoying his collaboration with Les Arts Florissants and his rapidly expanding guest conducting career.