Jessica Cottis

Conductor Jessica Cottis became the artistic director and chief conductor of the Canberra Symphony in 2021. She has had an international career, with many appearances in Britain and continental Europe, and she is a noted educator. Cottis was born on a military base in Sale, Victoria, Australia, on December 13, 1979. Her parents were both affiliated with the Australian military, but when not on base or traveling -- the family lived in the U.S., Britain, and New Zealand -- they also maintained a sheep farm. Cottis grew up with a strong awareness of the natural world, and between conducting engagements, she travels the world to visit butterfly population sites. As a child, she took lessons on piano, French horn, and trumpet. At the Australian National University, she studied organ, piano, and musicology. For a time, Cottis aspired to a career as an organist, and with financial support from the Australian Music Foundation and the Royal Philharmonic Society, she traveled to Paris for organ studies with Marie-Claire Alain. She made her debut as an organist at Westminster Cathedral in London in 2001, but then a wrist injury brought her keyboard career to an end. Cottis studied law at the University of London, but the pull of music was stronger, and she began conducting studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Colin Metters and Sir Colin Davis. She also studied composition and was made an RAM Manson Fellow at the school. Cottis took classes as well at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. In 2009, Cottis graduated and quickly landed a post as assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She counts its conductor at the time, Donald Runnicles, as a mentor. In 2012, she moved on to a similar post with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia, working with its chief conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and conducting some 30 concerts annually on her own. In 2014, she became a visiting professor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she has done much to encourage younger female conductors. That year, she was named the principal conductor of the Glasgow New Music Expedition. She has been committed to contemporary music, and she founded her own opera company, Bloomsbury Opera. Cottis commissioned new operas by Anna Meredith and Martin Georgiev and has conducted the premieres of several other new operas. In 2015, she made her recording debut, conducting the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on the album Gallipoli Symphony, a project featuring various composers and sponsored by the governments of Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey. In the late 2010s, Cottis appeared as a guest conductor with numerous orchestras worldwide, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Singapore Symphony. In 2021, she became the chief conductor and artistic director of the Canberra Symphony; she was the first woman to hold each post. In 2022, she was heard conducting the Oculus Ensemble on the album Julie Cooper: Continuum on the Signum Classics label.
© James Manheim /TiVo