This season, conductor Jessica Cottis begins her fifth season as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and her third season as Artistic Partner of the Västerås Sinfonietta.
Cottis’ recent highlights include two consecutive years opening the Aldeburgh Festival (in 2025 with the world premiere of Colin Matthews’ opera A Visit to Friends), and guest engagements with orchestras across the globe including the Real Filarmonica de Galicia, Queensland Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, National Radio Orchestra of Romania, Turku Philharmonic, Gavle Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. She has recorded for the BBC, ABC, and Decca Classics labels.
In the 2025-2026 season, Cottis will appear with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony, Danish Philharmonic and Calgary Philharmonic, and will conduct three programmes with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, including a concert performance of Bizet’s Carmen.
Cottis grew up on her family’s sheep farm in Australia and now resides in Stockholm. Outside of music, she is an avid lepidopterist!