Charles Cozens is an award winning, internationally acclaimed conductor, arranger, orchestrator, composer, music director, producer and pianist, who is equally skilled in many genres – classical, jazz, world music and more. He follows in the footsteps of such celebrated multi-talented greats as Gunther Shuller, Erich Kunzel, and Canada’s own Robert Farnon and Howard Cable.
An impresario, he embraces the vast arts industry, discovering and presenting new high-level artists.
Among his career highlights have been a Command Performance for HRH Queen Elizabeth II as an arranger and composer for the Ontario Youth Concert Band (London, England, 1984); and as conductor for HRH Prince Philip; Duke of Edinburgh Awards with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Toronto, 2004).
Charles Cozens studied conducting at Berklee College of Music in Boston USA with George Monseur (Leopold Stokowsky, Leonard Bernstein, Leon Barzin). Further studies included private instruction with Victor Feldbrill (Toronto Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Toho Gakuen School of Music, Japan), Dwight Bennett (Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Symphony, Royal Opera Canada) and Russian conductor Konstantin Krimets (Moscow Symphony Orchestra).
He has guest conducted many of Canada's leading symphony orchestras coast to coast, including those of Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, Mississauga, and Symphony Nova Scotia as well as the National Arts Centre Orchestra and members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted and recorded in Russia with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Cinema Orchestra and members of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2013 Maestro Cozens was the first Canadian in history to be invited to conduct in Cuba. His debut with the Orquestra de Villa Clara presented a program of dazzling orchestral dance music that included three of his own original compositions, Czardahora, Celtic Fantasia, and Homage A Piazzolla, for violin and orchestra.
He has conducted for many notable classical artists such as The Canadian Tenors, The Canadian Brass, Quartetto Gelato, Michael Bridge, Kornel Wolak, Michael Guttman, Leslie Kinton, James Anagnoson, Erica Goodman, Michael Burgess, Mark Dubois, Gisele Fredette, Peter DeSotto, and many pop artists such as Sir Elton John, Janelle Monae, Randy Bachman, Countermeasure, The Nylons, Matt Dusk, Ryan and Dan, Serena Ryder, Lindi Ortega, and Andrea Menard to name a few.
Other conducting credits include numerous television and film soundtracks, CD recordings, and over 40 theatrical productions, among them Fiddler On The Roof, Beauty And The Beast, My Fair Lady, Miss Saigon, Crazy For You, Anne Of Green Gables, Man Of La Mancha and The King And I.
Recent guest conducting appearances have included the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Pops Orchestra, The Ontario Philharmonic and the Burlington New Millennium Orchestra.
Maestro Cozens also conducted and produced the 2nd international branding of The Mozart Effect; a collection of 17 CDs of the music of Mozart which was released through Linus Entertainment in 2017.
Other collaborations have included conducting, arrangements and orchestrations for The Canadian Tenors , Eleanor McCain with David Foster, the Stratford Festival Orchestra (Richard Monette Gala); and the 25th Toronto’s Fashion Cares gala, starring Sir Elton John and Grammy Award winner Janelle Monáe.
Maestro Cozens is recognized as an expert in orchestral conducting for the recording environment. In January 2007, he was invited as a guest keynote speaker at the International Conductors Guild conference in Toronto, lecturing on Conducting for the Recording Orchestra which was subsequently published in Podium News.
Labeled by the Canadian Press as “one of Canada’s premier arrangers,Charles Cozens won the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s 1986 National Arrangers Workshop Competition. Since then, major orchestras in North America and Europe have performed his orchestral arrangements consistently to critical acclaim, and he has been continuously recognized with numerous awards and nominations.
Widely prolific, he has over 150 CDs to his credit as conductor, composer, arranger, pianist and producer for several recording labels including Universal, Sony, Linus Entertainment, CBC SM 5000, Attic, Solitudes, Avalon, Reflections, Somerset Entertainment and Jazz Inspiration.
A legendary arranger, he has scored symphonic arrangements for a plethora of well known artists including Randy Bachman, Sir Elton John, Lindi Ortega, The Canadian Tenors, Guido Basso, Quartetto Gelato, The Canadian Brass, Rhonda Head, Louise Pitre, Michael Burgess, Del Barber, Chantal Krevasiuk, Matt Dusk, Serena Ryder, Michael Guttman, Michael Danso, Ryan and Dan, The Lytonians. The Lyptics, Eagle and Hawk, and Waking Eyes to name a few.
He has also scored numerous symphonic pops shows, among them “Takin It Home” (Countermeasure), Tangorium (Bridge & Wolak), Quartetto Gelato in Concert (Quartetto Gelato), Symphonic Overdrive (Randy Bachman), Lindi Ortega In Concert (Lindi Ortega), Eagle and Hawk in Concert (Vince Fontaine), I Am Andrea Menard (Andrea Menard), Broadway Today (Jeff Madden, Mark Dubois, Gisele Fredette, Helena Janik), Putting It Together (The Nylons), Bending the Bows (Eduard Minevich and Frank Leahy), Harlem To Hollywood (Michael Danso), and The Pied Piper (Dorothy Lees-Blakey, Denis DeLaviolette).
Other projects as a composer, orchestrator and conductor have included a new symphonic work for the 50th anniversary of the Stratford Festival, in conjunction with Berthold Carrière; four new orchestral recordings in Moscow for Avalon Records; Angel Harp with Canadian harp virtuoso Erica Goodman; The Orient Express and Tasty Tunes (Quartetto Gelato).
He has penned a plethora of television and film scores, among them Tek Wars, Ray Bradbury Theatre, The Twilight Zone, At The Midnight Hour, Clarence, Christmas In America and The Long Road Home, plus more than 200 TV jingles.
Maestro Cozens’ theatrical works and Canadian cast recordings include The Three Musketeers (Stratford), Swingstep: The Musical (Silver Fox Productions), The Magic Of Love (North Waterloo Publishing), Showstoppers (Drayton Festival), and the Theatre Aquarius productions of Peter Pan, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, and Glory Days.
Among his more recent compositions are Three Latin Dances (Orpheus Choir of Toronto), Suite for Children, for Guitar and String Orchestra (Jason Carter, Helsinki), Marionette Fandangle (Acclarion), Les Petites Danses Démoniques Movement 1 (Niagara International Chamber Music Festival), Botanicus (Hannaford Street Silver Band with Bramwell Tovey), and The Clown Of Venice (Quartetto Gelato).
Violinist Michael Guttman premiered Cozens’ Celtic Fantasia and Czardahora for violin and orchestra, (Regina Symphony). The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has showcased him as arranger for JUNO Award winners Eagle and Hawk; the premiere of The Nylons’ symphonic pops show, Putting It Together which he also conducted, and the Indigenous Summer Music Festival.
Over the course of the pandemic, Maestro Cozens scored two new symphony shows; “Takin' It Home” for the legendary a capella group Countermeasure and Tangorium for virtuosos Michael Bridge and Kornel Wolak.
Collaborating with Canadian icon Fred Penner, he composed and orchestrated the music for a new family audio book entitled John and the Weather Vane Kite.
An accomplished pianist and accordionist, Charles Cozens has performed many recitals both classical and jazz. He has also appeared in concert with such musical legends as Henry Mancini, Cab Calloway and Eartha Kitt.
Early in his career, he won the Canadian Open Accordion Championship in 1968 and 1969, and subsequently represented Canada in the Coupe Mondiale 1969 (New York USA) where he placed among the world’s top 10 concert accordionists.
Maestro Cozens concertized regularly with Quartetto Gelato (2019 – 2022), and is currently an associated member of the ensemble.
The subject of many articles, reviews and journals, Charles Cozens has also been a contributing author to Broadway North: The Dream Of A Canadian Musical Theatre (Mel Atkey) and Glory Days (Bill Freeman).
He has served as a consultant for the the Advisory Committee for the Music Degree Program of Humber College, Toronto, a board member of Canadian Music Competitions (CMC Toronto) and for Roland Music Corporation, among others.
Always at the forefront of modern musical concepts, he is currently creating a new book on the art of arranging and orchestration.
Charles Cozens holds the Established Performing Artist Award from the Mississauga Arts Council, and has also been nominated for the Dora Award (Most Outstanding Musical: Swingstep) and the Chalmers Award in Composition (Peter Pan: The Return). His 2006 his album Balance was nominated for a JUNO Award for Instrumental Album of the Year.
He is also included in Worldwide Who’s Who. In 2023, Maestro Cozens was inducted into the Burlington Performing Arts Centre Hall of Fame.
Maestro Cozens is the founder and conductor of the Burlington New Millennium Orchestra, Conductor and Music Director of the Windjammers Symphonic Orchestra and the conductor and music supervisor of the Mozart Effect Live!; a stimulating multi-media presentation of the music of Mozart in conjunction with interactive immersive video.
He is Vice President of the the Arts and Culture Council of Burlington and Vice President of the Algoma Music Festival in association with the Great Lakes International Summer Music Festival at Algoma University, Sault Ste. Marie.
A complete C.V. Is available upon request.