Autour de Don Quichotte

Cellist and harpsichordist Jonathan Cohen is one of the most accomplished and sought-after British musicians of his generation. A fervent promoter of chamber music, he has mastered and explored repertoires ranging from baroque opera to the classical symphony. Cohen gained widespread recognition as associate conductor of Les Arts Florissants and, from 2010, as founder and artistic director of the Arcangelo ensemble. He has worked with Les Violons du Roy since 2014 and became their musical director in 2018. He also serves as artistic director of the Tetbury Music Festival and Boston’s prestigious Handel and Haydn Society.

A much-in-demand guest conductor, Cohen has appeared on both sides of the Atlantic with numerous ensembles, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Liège Royal Philharmonic, the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, the New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Throughout the 24-25 season, he returns to Kammerorchester Basel and directs performances of St Matthew Passion with both Rotterdam Philharmonic and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He returns to Glyndebourne Festival for a revival of Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel Saul. He leads both Handel and Haydn Society and Houston Symphony Orchestra in Messiah, and with Handel and Haydn he also conducts Haydn The Seasons, Mozart Requiem and Beethoven Mass in C.

In addition to his impressive discography of almost 30 works as director of Arcangelo, he has recorded three albums with Les Violons du Roy, all of which have garnered national and international acclaim. His album devoted to Handel and Glass with American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo earned Les Violons du Roy their first-ever Grammy nomination in 2019. Cohen has introduced several prestigious guest artists to audiences of Les Violons du Roy and has toured three times in Europe and North America with them.

Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as "one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists", German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, London Symphony, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Tokyo NHK Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras with conductors of the highest level including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Franz Welser-Möst, Christian Thielemann, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Jarvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Gustavo Dudamel.

His recordings include the concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Elgar, Lutosławski, Dutilleux, Tchaikovsky, Thomas Olesen and Fabrice Bollon (Electric Cello), which have gained him the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d'Or. In 2022, Johannes Moser released a highly innovative new album on the Platoon label featuring six new commissions for electric cello, alongside multi-layered arrangements of works for cello ensemble utilising DOLBY ATMOS’ revolutionary new audio technology for which The Strad commented, “…there’s no questioning Moser’s ambition, nor the sheer sense of verve with which he pulls it all off…”. Alone Together is one of the first classical music albums to use multi-tracking so extensively.

Following the World Premiere performance of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Cello Concerto, Before we fall with San Francisco Symphony (Stasevska) and its London premiere at the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Ollikainen) in the 2024/25 season, upcoming highlights for Johannes include continuing the co-commissioner performances with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (Ollikainen) and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (Saraste). Returning as Artist in Residence with the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Johannes will perform Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto (Metzmacher). Further highlights include return appearances with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Okpara), Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Bortolameolli) and Orchestre de Chambre de Luxembourg (Molęda), among others. In North America, Johannes performs Detlev Glanert’s Cello Concerto with the New World Symphony in Miami (Hindoyan), and returns with Thorvaldsdottir’s concerto to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (Chauhan). Johannes tours in a trio with Andrei Korobeinikov and Vadim Gluzman, with performances at Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Hall, Kino Vesmír in Ostrava, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

A dedicated chamber musician, Johannes has performed with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Jonathan Biss, James Ehnes, Vadim Gluzman, Leonidas Kavakos, Midori, Menahem Pressler and Yevgeny Sudbin. Johannes is also a regular at festivals including the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad and Kissinger festivals, the Mehta Chamber Music Festival, and the Colorado, Seattle and Brevard music festivals.

Renowned for expanding the reach of the classical genre and for his passionate advocacy of contemporary music, Johannes has emerged as a leading voice in the commissioning of new cello works. His collaborations with today’s most innovative and prolific composers have placed him at the forefront of the international new music community. He has recently been heavily involved in commissioning works by Julia Wolfe, Ellen Reid, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Johannes Kalitzke, Jelena Firsowa, Detlev Glanert, Chris Cerrone, Annie Gosfield, and Bernd Richard Deutsch, amongst many more. In 2011 he premiered Magnetar for electric cello by Enrico Chapela with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and in the following season he continued this relationship with the orchestra performing Michel van der Aa's cello concerto Up-close. Throughout his career, Johannes has been committed to reaching out to all audiences, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He combines most of his concert engagements with masterclasses, school visits and preconcert lectures.

Born into a musical family in 1979, Johannes began studying the cello at the age of eight and became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations. In 2014 he was awarded with the prestigious Brahms prize.

A voracious reader of everything from Kafka to Collins, and an avid outdoorsman, Johannes Moser is a keen hiker and mountain biker in what little spare time he has.

Johannes Moser plays on an Andrea Guarneri Cello from 1694 from a private collection.