David Cohen Nino Gvetadze Cellist and conductor David Cohen is the solo cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra. He made his solo debut with the Belgian National Orchestra at the age of nine. He studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and then at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he studied under Oleg Kogan. He has won more than 25 prizes in international cello competitions, including the Gold Medal of the GSMD in London, the Geneva International Cello Competition, J. S. Bach International Competition and many others. During the 2002/03 season, he was nominated as the ECHO Rising Star by the Royal Philharmonic Society of Belgium and the Concertgebouw. In his musical journey, David has worked as a soloist with some of the most distinguished conductors in the industry such as Lord Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Walter Weller, Sir Charles Mackerras, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christoph von Dohnányi, Pedro Halffter and Martyn Brabbins, among others. David plays on the ‘Ex-Pergamenschikow’ cello, a magnificent Dominicus Montagnana circa 1735, thanks to the kindness and generosity of Mrs Pat Morton and the help of the Razumovsky Trust. In recent years David has increasingly also appeared as a conductor, recently conducting to great acclaim the Phion orchestra, Stift Festival Orchestra and the Žebeljan Orchestra.
