Jessica Cottis

Early life

Jessica Cottis was born at RAAF Base East Sale in Victoria, Australia, the daughter of an Australian Defence Attaché, high ranking Royal Australian Air Force Officer, and diplomat. The family lived around the world, including the United States, England, and New Zealand. The fifth of five siblings, her older sister is immigration expert Sophie Montgomery; her eldest brother is writer and musician JG Montgomery.

Education

As a youth, she played trumpet and piano. She studied organ, piano and musicology at the Australian National University, and graduated with first-class honours. With support from the Royal Philharmonic Society and Australian Music Foundation, she continued her studies in Paris with Marie-Claire Alain. She was a prize winner in the 2000 Australian Young Performers' Competition and made her European debut as an organist at London's Westminster Cathedral the next year.

A wrist injury halted her playing career. She read law at the University of London and in 2006 began conducting studies at the Royal Academy of Music where her teachers included Colin Metters and Sir Colin Davis. She graduated in 2009, with distinction, and was appointed RAM Manson Fellow in Composition. She was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2015.

Career

During her time at the Royal Academy of Music, Cottis founded a new opera company, Bloomsbury Opera. Cottis has also commissioned new operas, including Anna Meredith's Tarantula in Petrol Blue and The Mirror by Martin Georgiev. In September 2009, she became the first Postgraduate Conducting Fellow of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was appointed Assistant Conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, where her mentors included Donald Runnicles. She served 2 years in the post. In 2012, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra appointed Cottis its next Assistant Conductor, and she held this post for 2 years. She worked closely with the orchestra’s Chief Conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and conducted the orchestra in over 30 concerts a year.

On the strength of this appointment she was engaged for concerts with a number of Australian and British orchestras. Among the orchestras she has worked with as guest conductor are the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, BIT20 Ensemble, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and at The Proms. In 2014 Jessica Cottis was appointed Principal Conductor of the Glasgow New Music Expedition, where she has curated projects alongside visual artists and filmmakers.

Cottis conducted her first commercial recording ‘Gallipoli Symphony’ in 2015, a tri-nation project of cultural diplomacy between Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, for ABC Classics. It features William Barton, Horomona Horo and Omar Faruk Tekbilek.

Since 2014 she is Visiting Lecturer in Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is a regular contributor to BBC radio and television programmes.

Personal life

Cottis has a form of synaesthesia, in which she experiences sound as colours. She resides in London.