Daniel Cohen has been General Music Director of the Staatstheater Darmstadt since 2018/ 2019.
From 2004 to 2014 he was Music Director of the Jersey Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Gropius Ensemble, creating projects which explored the threshold between music and theater.
Cohen maintains continuous relationships to the major Berlin opera houses: in 2015/ 2016 he was Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he conducted numerous performances including Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni and La Traviata and has been a regular guest ever since.
He will return soon to the Deutche Oper Berlin to conduct the world premiere of Battistelli’s Teorema and Don Giovanni.
At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden he made his debut in 2016/ 17 with Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps and returned for performances including Il Barbiere di Siviglia as well as a revival of the production Britten’s Turn of the screw. Further invitations lead him to the Canadian Opera Company, Israeli Opera Tel Aviv, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Teatro Massimo and to the Norske Opera Oslo.
Daniel Cohen made his debut at the Bregenz Festival conducting the Wiener Symphoniker in a production of Massenet’s Don Quichotte directed by Mariame Clément. The acclaimed production, released on DVD and broadcast by the BBC, was awarded the Austrian Music Theater Prize 2020 for “Best Opera Production”. Cohen was invited to conduct the newly formed Bregenz Festival Academy Orchestra.
In the symphonic domain, he has conducted among others the Staatskapelle Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, HR-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig and the Sinfonieorchester Basel.
One focus of his repertoire is contemporary music: he was a participant of the Lucerne Festival Academy Composer Project conducted by Pierre Boulez. His first seasons in Darmstadt he dedicates next to the classic repertoire like Mahler, Beethoven and Mozart also to the Moderne, including Nono, Boulez and Varèse. Currently he conducts the Staatsorchester Darmstadt in a complete cycle of all Mahler songs. His opera projects have so far included such productions as Un Ballo in Maschera, Fidelio, Lohengrin, La bohème, Rusalka, Lilli Boulanger’s, Faust and Hélène as well as Le Sacre du printemps with the Hessische Staatsballett. Cohen was also instrumental in the founding of the Barokfest Darmstadt which this season would include such artists as Avi Aavital, Isabel Faust, Sonia Prina and Sergio Azzollini and will focus on the tradition of Baroque in Darmstadt and the Hofkapelle.
In 2022/ 23 Daniel Cohen’s guest appearances include a return to the Norwegean Opera, Deutsche Oper, MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Orchestra della Toscana, as well as concerts with the Münchener Symphoniker, The newly formed Bregenz Festival Academy Orchestra, the Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano. At the Staatstheater Darmstadt highlights will include a new production of Berg’s Lulu and concerts with soloists such as Sharon Kam and Fazil Say.
After his Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Daniel Cohen was a long-term member of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra as a violinist, where he also assisted Daniel Barenboim with many concerts and recordings. In 2013/ 14 Daniel Cohen was “Dudamel Fellow” at the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, one year later he was “Conducting Fellow” at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
May 2023