The US-based Handel and Haydn Society has introduced that Jonathan Cohen will likely be its subsequent inventive director. The Manchester-born conductor, cellist and keyboardist will succeed Harry Christophers, who stepped down in 2021 after 15 years as inventive director.
Primarily based in Boston, the Handel and Haydn Society is devoted to performing music from the Baroque and Classical eras. It has been energetic for over 200 years, giving its first efficiency in 1815. That historical past makes it America’s oldest arts organisation. After Christophers – founding father of the The Sixteen, whom we named one of many finest choirs on this planet – Cohen is the second successive British musician to tackle the inventive director position.
He may even be considered one of its youngest inventive administrators, having graduated from Clare School, Cambridge in 2000. Cohen was, was a co-founder of the famend London Haydn Quartet: he additionally based the UK-based early music ensemble Arcangelo.
Cohen calls the chance ‘a dream come true, permitting me to work collaboratively with a number of the most expert and passionate musicians on the planet’. He’ll take up the position at the beginning of the 2023-24 live performance season: nevertheless, he has already loved a profitable run of live shows with the Society, directing performances of Vivaldi’s Gloria, CPE Bach’s Magnificat, and JS Bach’s Orchestral Suite No 1.
‘Jonathan understands that acting on interval devices will not be a tutorial train; it’s about performing this music with the freshness and vibrancy of latest music,’ provides David Snead, CEO of the Handel and Haydn Society. ‘From Jonathan’s first performances with Handel and Haydn it was clear that his method to music-making aligns powerfully with what H+H is all about.’
Jonathan Cohen pic by Marco Borggreve
