Joel Cohen

Joel Cohen is a leading authority on medieval and Renaissance musical performance. He has received widespread acclaim as a performer, conductor and writer in his chosen field. Cohen studied composition at Harvard University. Awarded a Danforth Fellowship, he spent the next two years in Paris as a student of Nadia Boulanger. He has taught and lectured at many leading universities, giving seminars and workshops all over the world – including at the Schola Cantorum in Basel and at the Royal Opera in Brussels. As a lutenist, Cohen has performed with numerous European ensembles. His repertoire spans centuries and diverse musical traditions, with a particular focus on French medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque music.

Cohen’s professional honors include the Erwin Bodky award for early music (1967), the Signet Society medal from Harvard (1985), the George Longy Award (2001) and the Howard Mayer Brown Lifetime Achievement Award (2003). In 2005, he was promoted to Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture of France.

Cohen directed the Boston Camerata’s teaching, research, recording and concert activities from 1968 to 2008. His unique style of program building made the Boston Camerata ensemble famous on five continents. Under his direction, the ensemble released more than thirty recordings. In 1990, Cohen founded a new group, Camerata Mediterranea, with the goal of fostering interaction and research between musicians and scholars trained in both the Middle East and the Western world.

Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata have collaborated with Tero Saarinen Company since 2002 with Borrowed Light.