A two-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Maurice Cohn is currently the 11th Music Director of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Alongside his work in West Virginia, highlights of his 24/25 season include debuts with the Filharmonie Bohslava Martinů for Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Omaha Symphony for Kurt Weill’s Symphony No. 2. In the summer he will return to the Colorado Music Festival for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1.
Highlights of his 23/24 season included a successful jump-in with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, an appearance as Guest Conductor with Music in the Mountains, and a return to the Aspen Music Festival, where he conducted the Chamber Symphony in a programme that included the world premiere of Peng-Peng Gong's Late Bells for Concertante Piano and Orchestra. He also returned to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, where he conducted Mason Bates’s Philharmonia Fantastique and a concert performance of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Recent seasons include debuts with Utah Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, and Symphoria New York as well as frequent appearances with the Chicago-based contemporary ensemble Zafa Collective and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Maurice served as the Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra until the end of the 23/24 season. He was also Assistant Conductor of the Aspen Music Festival in 2022 and 2023.
He is the recipient of the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and the Aspen Conducting Prize. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College, where he studied History and Mathematics. He received a Master of Music in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music.
December 2024
