SAMANTHA COHEN

Lute and Theorbo Player

Samantha Cohen has been active as a lutenist since making the decision to devote herself entirely to instruments of the lute family in 1993. She has won numerous awards and scholarships, and is in demand as a soloist, accompanist and basso continuo player. She performs on renaissance and baroque lutes, baroque guitar and theorbo.

In 1997, Samantha was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, which took her to London to study with Jakob Lindberg. She returned to the UK in 1999 after receiving a bursary funded by The Mercer's Group to attend the Dartington International Summer School. She has received grants from the Australia Council and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, and in 2000 was awarded a scholarship by the Fondazione Marco Fodella, which took her to Milan for a year to study with Paul Beier at the Civica Scuola di Musica.

Samantha has accompanied various soloists and has performed with Ensemble Gombert, Arcadia, Ensemble 415 and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. She has featured in the Melbourne Autumn Music Festival, the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival and the Melbourne Early Music Festival. She has been recorded and broadcast by the ABC, and for the Melbourne Festival 2002 she co-curated Sheer Pluck, an event featuring and celebrating plucked instruments from the Renaissance to the present day.