Métis-Canadian musician, Cole Knutson grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada. He completed undergraduate studies in classical saxophone performance with Allen Harrington and went on to receive a Master’s Degree in Piano Accompaniment Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London on full scholarship, where he studied with Julius Drake and Eugene Asti, played for the studio of Yvonne Kenny, and regularly worked with Professor Rudolf Piernay. Cole was also employed as a staff accompanist while at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, playing for lessons, classes, masterclasses, and performances at the school. Based in Berlin and Canada, Cole is continuing his studies with Professor Wolfram Rieger at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler.

As an active recitalist, Cole has enjoyed recent performances in the Großer of the Konzerthaus Berlin, Heidelberger Frühling's Liedfestival, Carnegie Hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal as part of the Schubert Woche, Wigmore Hall, LSO St. Lukes, the Barbican, Montréal’s Salle Bourgie, Paris’ Salle Cortot & Musée d'Orsay, and the Oxford Lieder Festival. He regularly enjoys performances throughout the Europe and North America, has given several world premieres, and has been broadcasted on the BBC, the CBC, Radio France, Deutschlandradio Kultur, rbbKultur, and Radio Swiss Classic.

Recent award-winning performances include the Sonderpreis Interpretation Auftragswerk for the 2024 Felix Mendelssohn Wettbewerb, the Kattenburg Concours de Voix in Lausanne, Switzerland, the 2022 Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall, accompanist in the 2022 finals of the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) at Wigmore Hall. Other recent award-winning performances at the Concours Musical International de Montréal in 2022 and the 2022 International Mozart Competition. Winner of the 2021 London Song Festival Competition & the Delius Society Prize with French-Canadian mezzo-soprano, Anika France-Forget. Other prizes include prizewinner of the 2020 English Song Prize at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, winner of the 2020 Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform, and the HWE and WL Tovery Scholarship.

This season, Cole is enjoying a residency at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and was selected as a scholar at the Académie Orsay-Royaumont in France. Additionally, he was made the artistic ambassador for Creative Kids Saskatchewan, a charity that provides arts funding to children in Cole's home province of Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a participant of the 2023 SongStudio at Carnegie Hall, led by Renée Fleming. Likewise, in the fall of 2022, he was made a scholar at the Liedzentrum Liedakademie in collaboration with Heidelberger Frühling and the Pierre Boulez Saal, led by Thomas Hampson. 

Cole is twice a recipient from the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Awards and The Art Song Foundation of Canada, where he has also been published in their newsletter. He is a laureate of the 2017 and 2018 Franz Schubert Institut in Baden bei Wien, Austria. Cole is grateful to be part of the last class offered by the founder, the late-Deen Larsen. As a classical saxophonist, in 2017, Cole was awarded Second Prize at the National Music Festival of Canada following his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of twenty and served as principal saxophonist of the National Youth Band of Canada for half of a decade.

His artistic endeavours have received continuous support through Métis Nations Saskatchewan, the Gabriel Dumont Institute, SK Arts, the Guildhall Trust, the Art Song Foundation of Canada, The Sylva Gelber Music Foundation, and Der Freunde und Förderer der Hochschule für Musik Berlin.

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