Jessica Cottis is supported by Premier Partner Credit Suisse.

Jessica recently completed a two-year appointment as Assistant Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) under their Chief Conductor Donald Runnicles. She also recently completed a Fellowship in Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

She made her BBC Proms debut in 2010, conducting works by James Dillon with Scotland's MusicLab Ensemble. She subsequently conducted the premiere of Dillon's epic cycle Nine Rivers with the BBC SSO and Les Percussions de Strasbourg, described by The Guardian as "unquestionably the most significant new-music event in Britain this year".

Cottis has regularly guest conducted Scotland's contemporary music ensemble, Red Note and, as Artistic Director of Bloomsbury Opera, has conducted Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Die Fledermaus, Hansel and Gretel and Eugene Onegin. She has also conducted the premiere of new operas at Aldeburgh, the Royal Academy of Music, and in Nüremberg, and recently conducted Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins for Scottish Opera/Company Chordelia.

Cottis obtained a first class honours degree in organ, piano and musicology from the Australian National University. A prize-winner in the Symphony Australia Young Performers Award, she continued her studies as an organist with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris, winning awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society and Royal College of Organists, and made her European debut at Westminster Cathedral in 2003.

She worked professionally as an organist in London and Paris until a hand injury subsequently halted her playing career and she read law at the University of London whilst undertaking postgraduate conducting studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Cottis was awarded the Academy's top conducting prizes upon graduation in July 2009, the same month she was appointed to her positions at the BBC SSO and RCS, and also Manson Fellow in Composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2012, she appeared on the BBC2 series Maestro at the Opera as conducting mentor to DJ Trevor Nelson, and was a jury member for the finals of the BBC Young Musician Competition.