Jacques Cohen Joins RCMJD as Symphony Orchestra Conductor

Monday 4 January 2016

We are delighted to welcome Jacques Cohen as new conductor of the RCM Junior Department Symphony Orchestra.

After studying at the University of Oxford, Jacques was awarded a Conducting Scholarship at the Royal College of Music where he later won the Tagore Gold Medal. Since then he has won several other awards including the August Manns Conducting Prize and the Constant and Kit Lambert Award. He took First Prize in the British Reserve Conducting Competition and was also a prize winner in the Leeds Conductors’ Competition.

Jacques has conducted orchestras around the world and enjoys a parallel career as a composer. Since 2005, Jacques has been Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Isis Ensemble which he formed from high-profile chamber musicians, soloists and leading players in the established UK orchestras, and which now regularly performs at London’s Southbank Centre and around the UK.

The RCM Junior Department Symphony Orchestra said goodbye to its previous conductor, Richard Dickins, in July 2015 after 30 years of distinguished work with the RCMJD. Senior Orchestra Tutor Gonzalo Acosta acted as interim conductor during the 2015 Autumn term. Everybody in the orchestra looks forward to working with Jacques, whose first concert is on 12 March 2016.