Edward Cohen was born in Kent in 1986, and began playing the piano at the age of six. He commenced studies at the Royal College of Music when he was ten, and is a first class graduate of the Royal Academy of Music where he was a student of Kathryn Stott. Additionally, he studied at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music with André Watts (who hailed him as “a pianist of limitless potential with real emotional sensitivity and inquisitive intelligence”), where he was also a studio accompanist for the legendary ‘cellist János Starker. Recently Edward has benefited greatly from additional tuition by acclaimed musicians including Arnaldo Cohen, Rustem Hayroudinoff, Rolf Hind, Yevgeny Sudbin, Martino Tirimo, and Lilya Zilberstein, in addition to studying free improvisation with Anto Pett. He is currently completing his Master's degree at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he studies with Aaron Shorr and John Thwaites. Additionally, Edward collaborates frequently with dancers and has recently been working extensively with Scottish Ballet.
Since being awarded the prestigious Sheila Mossman Memorial Prize by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music at the age of just fourteen (for achieving the best mark worldwide in a grade eight examination), Edward has received top honours and the highest praise in numerous competitions. He concertises regularly both in the UK and abroad and has performed in the presence of HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. In October 2009 he was the only solo performer throughout the eleven concerts celebrating the 75th birthday of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and he received favourable reviews from both the national press and the composer himself. His international solo appearances include the Netherlands, USA (including a series of six concerts in early 2009), Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Philippines. He will return to the USA in June 2010 at the invitation of the Chopin Symposium in Boston, Massachusetts.
Edward is a keen chamber musician; recent duo recitals include with the world's leading marimba player, Eric Sammut, and with three-time international prize-winning American flautist Amy Porter. He has performed under the baton of conductors including Yan Pascal Tortelier, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and Hilary Davan Wetton. In addition to this, he was invited by Dmitri Shostakovich’s widow, Mme. Irina Shostakovich, to perform in the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the Shostakovich Centenary celebrations. He has also appeared at London Fashion Week, and at the Institute of Contemporary Art playing music for acoustic piano and electronics. His playing was featured in the recent short film “Furnace Four”.
Edward has recorded numerous CDs and has been interviewed and broadcast several times on BBC Radio, and National Public Radio in the USA. His musical interests are extremely diverse, and he has an extensive repertoire of solo works, chamber music and concertos, with a special emphasis on the neglected, alongside the standard classical repertoire.
