Daniel Cohen - Conductor and Violinist

The Dynamic young Israeli musician, Daniel Cohen is just emerging on the international conducting scene. Having excelled at the violin he was invited to be member of Daniel Barenboim's 'West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’ and performed as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic and many other orchestras. His switch to conducting has been met with immediate success.

Between 2004 and 2007, Daniel was Music Director of the Eden Chamber Orchestra in London. In 2007, he completed his Postgraduate Conducting Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Among his teachers were George Hurst, Colin Metters and Sir Colin Davies. In that same year, 2007, Daniel won the first prize in the Admont International Conducting Competition in Austria and in 2008 has just won the first prize in the Aviv Competition in Israel.

In 2008, Daniel Cohen has been invited to observe Daniel Barenboim in rehearsals and concerts at the Staatskapelle in Berlin and to conduct concerts with the orchestra of the Staatskappelle Academy. Barenboim considers Cohen 'a young man of extraordinary musical intelligence and intellectual capacity'.

Cohen also assisted Yan Pascal Tortelier with the Royal Academy of Music’s Symphony Orchestra and took part in the Orkney Conducting Course where he worked with such distinguished ensembles and conductors such as the BBC Philharmonic, the Nash Ensemble, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Martyn Brabbins and Sian Edwards.

Tortelier says of Daniel Cohen, 'I have been truly impressed with his conducting abilities and his handling of a new score. And Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has said, 'He is a splendid, gifted and experienced conductor, with real insights into how to make his inner visions of a score become audible reality.

Today Daniel is Music Director of the Gropius Ensemble, a group of outstanding young Israeli musicians that performs Chamber-Symphonic and interdisciplinary works and regularly commission's new works of this nature. Recent collaborations with the ensemble include such actors as Alex Ansky and Itay Tiran. He is also Chief Conductor of the Jersey Chamber Orchestra.

With his background and training in Britain and Israel, and his love and understanding of the music of his native land, Daniel Cohen is the ideal person to conduct the Musical Dialogues