Symphony taps new concertmaster

Diana Cohen, concertmaster of the Kalamazoo (MI) Symphony and one of several violinists sharing the concertmaster’s post in the Iris Orchestra of Memphis, will join the Richmond Symphony as its new concertmaster when its 2011-12 season commences in September.

Cohen also has served as concertmaster of the Charleston (SC) Symphony, American Repertory Orchestra and Red (an orchestra), and as principal second violin of the New York String Orchestra. She has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and International Sejong Soloists.

She is a member of the piano trio Trio Terzetto, and has played at a number of chamber-music festivals, including the Marlboro, Aspen and Taos festivals.

The violinist is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her father, Franklin Cohen, is principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Her late mother, Lynette Diers Cohen, was a noted bassoonist, and her brother, Alexander, is a timpanist.

Cohen’s stand-mate also will be a new face in Richmond. The symphony appointed violinist Jeanine Wynton, a Yale University alumna most recently playing in the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago, as its assistant concertmaster earlier in the summer.