Living near: Boston, Massachusetts USA
Clarinet Expertise: Teacher, Recording Artist
E-Mail: cohler@shore.net

Reproduced by permission from the Ongaku Records pages.

Jonathan Cohler

is recognized internationally as a virtuoso clarinetist. Through his performances around the world and on record, he has thrilled an ever widening audience with his incredible musicianship and total technical command. Fanfare Magazine has compared him to three giants of classical music--"one thinks of Dinu Lipatti or Youri Egorov, or. . .Reginald Kell"--and the magazine dubbed Mr. Cohler's performance "superhuman." The Clarinet Magazine of the International Clarinet Association recently declared Mr. Cohler "an absolute master of the clarinet, technically and tonally."

A highly acclaimed recording artist with an extraordinarily wide repertoire, his most recent release, The Clarinet Alone, was a finalist and received an Honorable Mention for the 1995 INDIE Award presented by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors and Manufacturers. The response to this CD has been outstanding. American Record Guide remarked "Cohler is an amazing musician -- I suppose there is nothing he cannot play," while Listener Magazine said "Cohler possesses such musical integrity and taste that everything he touches seems like the last word. . .There is no other recording I know of as unique. Run, don't walk!" Last year's release of Moonflowers, Baby!, on the Crystal Records label, received the "Outstanding Recording" mark from American Record Guide and Gramophone hailed it for Mr. Cohler's expression of "the poetry that lesser artists miss." His 1994 release of More Cohler on Clarinet was chosen as one of only three clarinet recordings in BBC Music Magazine's Best CDs of 1994. And his 1993 debut solo recording Cohler on Clarinet received resounding acclaim, including the coveted top rating of five stars for both sound and performance from BBC Music Magazine. In October of 1994, BBC Music Magazine featured a new CD by Mr. Cohler attached to the cover of the issue, which was distributed to the more than 350,000 people worldwide who comprise the circulation of the world's best selling classical music magazine.

As the youngest of seven finalists in the world-renowned Munich International Music Competition, he launched his career at an early age. Born in Boston, Mr. Cohler began his musical studies at the age of six. Mr. Cohler's teachers include legendary Boston Symphony Orchestra clarinetist Pasquale Cardillo, Harold Wright, Karl Leister and Charles Neidich.

In addition to his work as a soloist, Mr. Cohler is an active chamber musician and conductor. He collaborates frequently with many well known musicians and ensembles including members of the Emerson String Quartet, the Muir String Quartet, The Moscow Conservatory Trio, The Amadeus Trio, The New Jersey Chamber Music Society, The Boston Chamber Music Society, The Wavehill Trio, Boris Berezovsky, Ilya Kaler, Suren Bagratuni, Andres Diaz, Charles Neidich, Laurence Lesser, Randall Hodgkinson, Sergey Schepkin, Judith Gordon, Veronica Jochum and Karol Bennett.

He has toured the United States, Japan, Europe, and performed at many festivals including those of Tanglewood, Aspen, Rockport, Newport and the Hamptons. Last summer he made his debut on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. This coming season he will appear on the world renowned Concerts Under the Dome series in Chicago.

Mr. Cohler is currently the Music Director and Conductor of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra and the Assistant Conductor of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of the New England Conservatory. He has also held conducting positions with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony, the Empire State Youth Symphony (Albany) and the Harvard-Radcliffe Ensemble Society.

Mr. Cohler graduated with high honors in physics from Harvard University. In his first year at Harvard, he won a fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, of which he was the youngest member. He also held the principal clarinet position of the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Cohler has been featured on both Cable Television and National Public Radio. He has been a member of the clarinet, chamber music and conducting faculties of the New England Conservatory Extension Division in Boston since 1983.

© 1996 Ongaku Records, Inc.