Biography
NEWS: James Dillon's 'Nine Rivers', performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Steven Schick and Jessica Cottis in November 2010, awarded top classical music honour: BBC press release
Jessica Cottis to make debut at Scottish Opera, conducting Weill's 'The Seven Deadly Sins' for the opening production of the 2011/2012 season in a co-production with Company Chordelia Dance Theatre: Scottish Opera
BIOGRAPHY: Australian-British conductor Jessica Cottis recently completed a highly successful two-year appointment as Assistant Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Increasingly in demand as a guest conductor, Jessica Cottis made her BBC Proms debut in 2010, conducting works by James Dillon with Scotland’s MusicLab Ensemble. She subsequently conducted the premiere of Dillon’s epic cycle ‘Nine Rivers’ with the BBC SSO and Les Percussions de Strasbourg, described by The Guardian as ‘unquestionably the most significant new-music event in Britain this year’. The success of this concert lead to further invitations to conduct the BBC SSO in concert, including a recent series of highly successful young people’s concerts, and side-by-side performances with the orchestra of Sistema Scotland. Appointed assistant conductor to the BBC SSO in July 2009, Jessica Cottis continues to work closely with her mentor (and chief conductor) Donald Runnicles on a wide range of repertoire, most noticeably on works by R. Strauss, Mahler, Wagner, Berg, Ravel, Bruckner, Sibelius, Haydn and Beethoven. She has also assisted Runnicles for concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, for Wagner’s Die Walküre, and on Mahler’s symphonies.
Particularly active within the field of new music, Jessica Cottis has conducted over 50 premières and works regularly as Guest Conductor of Scotland’s premiere contemporary music group ensemble, RedNote, with whom she has received outstanding reviews. Opera premières include Rory Boyle’s ‘Kaspar Hauser’ (RSAMD), Martin Georgiev’s ‘The Mirror’ (Royal Academy) and Anna Meredith’s ‘Tarantula in Petrol Blue’ (Aldeburgh). As Artistic Director of Bloomsbury Opera Jessica Cottis has conducted ‘Die Zauberflöte', 'Don Giovanni', 'Die Fledermaus' and 'Hansel and Gretel' for the Bloomsbury Festival; other opera performances inlcude 'The Magic Flute', 'Il Signor Bruschino' and 'La scala di seta' (British Youth Opera), ‘Le nozze di Figaro’, 'Albert Herring’ and ‘War and Peace (RSAMD).
Upcoming performances include the German première of Boyle's 'Kaspar Hauser' in Nuremburg, the stage première of Georgiev's 'The Mirror' at the Bulgarian National Opera, new works by Scotland-based composers with MusicLab Ensemble, Glass’s ‘1000 Airplanes on the Roof’ for the Lammermuir Festival and Minimal: Glass@75 Festival, 'The Seven Deadly Sins' with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, and a series of concerts with the BBC SSO including works by Debussy, R. Strauss, Copland, Maxwell Davis, and Rautavaara.
Jessica Cottis obtained a first class honours degree in organ, piano and musicology from the Australian National University. A prize-winner in the Australian Young Musician of the Year Competition, she continued her studies as an organist with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris, winning awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society and Royal College of Organists, and made her European debut at Westminster Cathedral in 2003. She worked professionally as an organist in London and Paris until a hand injury subsequently halted her playing career and she read law at the University of London whilst studying on the postgraduate conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music. Cottis was awarded the Academy’s top conducting prizes upon graduation, in June 2009 and is an alumna of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.
July 2011. Not to be altered without permission.