J onathan C ohler

My Fan Page on Facebook recently passed the 3000-fan mark making it the #1 classical clarinetist page on Facebook in the world! Thank you to all my friends, fans and supporters for helping me to reach this milestone!!

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

Hommage à Schumann

J oin me on for an exciting evening featuring works of Robert & Clara SCHUMANN, BRAHMS, LISZT, and SCHUBERT performed by yours truly, soprano Jayne West, and pianists Robert Merfeld and Rasa Vitkauskaite. Reception to follow concert! Facebook event here.

What:	Hommage à Schumann — Longy Faculty Recital
When:	Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Where:	Pickman Hall, Longy School of Music 27 Garden St. Cambridge, MA

 

European Clarinet Festival & Competition

T here is a major new clarinet competition and festival taking place in Kortrijk, Belgium from October 30 to November 6, 2010. I will be teaching masterclasses, playing a recital, playing the Weber Concertino with the Clarinet Quartet of the United States Air Force Band of Europe, and judging the competition there on a very prestigious panel. As part of the same event, the first European Clarinet Festival takes place from November 4 to 7, 2010. If you are interested in competing or performing at the festival click here for contact information, festival information and competition application!!

The jury and prizes being offered are the largest of any clarinet competition in the world that I am aware, and the jury is truly international including such clarinet legends as Karl Leister, Stanley Drucker, Koichi Hamanaka and other well-known clarinetists.

Hope to see you there!

RECENT NEWS

 

ClarinetFest, Austin

F rom July 21 to July 25, I was in Austin, Texas at the annual mega-gathering of clarinetists from all over the world, ClarinetFest 2010. I played the Prokofiev Sonata in D Major, Op. 94 there with Colette Valentine in McCullough Theatre, which is in the Performing Arts Center at University of Texas, Austin. I had a great time visiting with friends from the world over including my old pal Michael Drapkin from Tanglewood days, who hosted a wonderful party at his lovely new home, and my good friend from Taiwan, Bill Chen of the Taipei Symphony. Bill brought a large entourage of students to the event, and I gave a special masterclass just for them.

Xativa, Spain

I taught and conducted the orchestra at the 2° Curso Internacional de Musica Ciutat de Xàtiva from July 4 to 10. The festival is a 7-day intensive event lead by Fran Moral & Jordi Fuster, founders of Saetebis Music Society. The festival takes place in Xàtiva, Spain and it was amazing! I posted pictures on Facebook here. I'll choose the best ones and post them here soon. It was 37 or 38 degrees every day in Xàtiva, which is one of the hottest places in Spain! I did get to visit the castle at the top of the hill and it was beautiful! I conducted the orchestra there in a performance of Dvorak Symphony No. 9 "From the New World". The festival also included included performances by the saxophone ensemble, clarinet ensemble, percussion ensemble, string quartet, and piano flamenco!! Great performances all around! And the clarinet students were amazing! I will miss Xàtiva!

IWWF 2010, Pella, Iowa

The International Woodwind Festival 2010 in Pella, Iowa took place from June 20 to 27! IWWF this year featured renowned Belgian soloist and teacher Eddy Vanoosthuyse, Central College professor of clarinet Cynthia Doggett, along with yours truly Jonathan Cohler, as well as pianists Rasa Vitkauskaite, and Shizue Sano.

Oklahoma!

I performed at the 35th Annual University of Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium in June. I played a recital with my amazing pianist Rasa Vitkauskaite. The program included Franck Sonata in A Major, Sargon Deep Ellum Nights, and Widor Introduction et Rondo, Op. 72.

Mexico

I performed and taught at the 1er Encuentro de Clarinete 2010 in March at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, Mexico. The program for my recital was: As usual my pianist was the wonderful Rasa Vitkauskaite! Click on the poster to the left for more information on the festival. The salsa dancing in Mexico City was great!

Messiaen with Claremonts

A fter Caracas, I headed straight out to Logan, Utah where I played a performance of the Messaien Quartet for the End of Time and the Beethoven Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11 with the renowned Claremont Trio on the concert series of the Chamber Music Society of Logan. The concert was at 7:30pm on November 18, 2009in the Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall on the campus of Utah State University.

Simon Bolivar Orchestra

F rom November 1 to November 15, 2009 I was in Caracas, Venezuela conducting the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, playing a recital with Rasa Vitkauskaite, and performing the Morton Gould Derivations with the Simon Bolivar Big Band in honor of Benny Goodman's 100th birthday.

The orchestra concert included Beethoven Symphony No. 6, Arismendi Concerto, Ravel La Valse, and Corigliano Concerto, and it took place on Saturday, November 7 at 5:00pm in Simon Bolivar Hall at the Centro de Acción Social por la Música in Caracas. The Facebook event page is HERE.

Our recital on Monday, November 9 at 6:30pm in Concert Hall No. 2 of the Centro de Acción Social por la Música in Caracas included Schumann Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 105, Martinu Sonatina, Bernstein Sonata, and Bassi Rigoletto. The Facebook event page is HERE.

The Morton Gould performance was on Sunday, November 8 at 5:00pm at the Humboldt Cultural Association in Caracas.

New YouTube Videos

C heck out my new videos on YouTube! Bliss Pastoral • D'Rivera Contradanza • Brahms Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2 1st movement • Bernstein Sonata 1st movement, 2nd movement • Guastavino Rosita Iglesias

Brahms, Beethoven, and Dohnanyi

I  have just published a few recent articles of mine on the web. You are welcome and invited to read them! Although they are published as "Notes" attached to my Facebook "Fan Page", you CAN read them without being a member of Facebook. If you would like to add comments to those pages (which are always welcome!), however, you must be a member and logged into Facebook. These three articles come from my recent CD Jonathan Cohler & Claremont Trio:

BEETHOVEN Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11
BRAHMS Trio in A Minor, Op. 114
DOHNANYI Sextet in C Major, Op. 37

I hope you enjoy them and would certainly appreciate any feedback that you may have!

Romanza

O ur new CD Romanza should be back from the factory by the end of April. Stay tuned!

Taiyuan, China

F rom August 17 to 25, 2009 we were in China, where I was one of the featured artists at the International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Taiyuan, playing the same recital with Rasa and teaching masterclasses. We visited an ancient city an hour away from Taiyuan in Shanxi Province and then in Beijing, we saw Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall (at Badaling), and the Forbidden City. The students in China are amazing! We look forward to our next trip back there.

ClarinetFest, Porto

O n August 13, 2009 at 2:30pm, Rasa Vitkauskaite and I played a recital at the beautiful Casa da Musica in Porto as part of the International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest. The program included Schumann Sonata in A Minor, Op. 105 (from our coming CD Romanza), Wilson Liquid Ebony, Messager Solo de Concours (from our award-winning CD Rhapsodie Francaise), Arnold Sonatina, and Lovreglio Fantasy on Themes from "La Traviata". The Facebook event is here. Then at 9:30am on August 14, I taught an open masterclass at the Conservatory of Music in Porto. I also judged the final round of the International Clarinet Association's Young Artist Competition.

Luckily, we had a little bit of free time, so we were able to check out the beaches in Espinho and Matosinho where we also ate some great seafood!

American Record Guide

I n the July-August 2009 issue of American Record Guide, there was a stellar review of our CD Jonathan Cohler & Claremont Trio.

BBC Music

O ur CD Jonathan Cohler & Claremont Trio was awarded the BBC Music CHOICE distinction in the May 2009 issue of BBC Music Magazine, the world's best-selling classical music magazine. Giving the CD a top rating of 5-stars for Performance, reviewer Anthony Burton lauded our:

Minnesota Public Radio

The CD was also recently featured on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Tracks in a story by Julie Amacher. Minnesota Public Radio® is one of the nation's premier public radio organizations. With headquarters in the heart of downtown St. Paul, Minnesota Public Radio operates a regional network of 38 stations, covering Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Michigan, Iowa and Idaho. With 850,000 listeners each week, it has the largest audience of any regional public radio network.

For more info on the fabulous Claremont Trio see their website at http://claremonttrio.com/.

The Clarinet Magazine

The Clarinet Magazine of the International Clarinet Association just published a great review of our CD Rhapsodie Francaise!! Here are some excerpts from the review:

WNED (Buffalo/Toronto)

Our CD Rhapsodie Francaise was chosen for Classical 94.5 WNED (Buffalo/Toronto) 2008 "Best of the Year" classical CDs. Program host Peter Hall selected Rhapsodie as one of only three CDs as his choices for the "Best of the Year". Altogether the hosts and producers chose a total of 30 CDs, each choosing just two or three.

Some of the other artists chosen for the honor include Yo-Yo Ma, Luciano Pavarotti, Helene Grimaud, Gustavo Dudamel with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Claudio Abbado with the London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Fournier, Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Emil Gilels, and James Galway.

Fanfare Magazine

T he current issue of Fanfare Magazine contains a nice recommendation of my recording of the Hindemith Sonata and Honegger Sonatina recordings on Moonflowers, Baby! as their preferred recordings of the works! Check out the full Fanfare review here.

Boston Conservatory Recital

At the end of March, Rasa and I returned from a wonderful tour of Asia where we played concerts in Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Shanghai and Tokyo (check out the pictures on mine and Rasa's FB pages). Our following recital at Seully Hall in Boston included much of the music that we played on tour plus some other pieces. The concert also included two pieces from our CD Rhapsodie Francaise which just received a great write-up in the March-April issue of Fanfare Magazine.

 

Asia Tour

Our Tour of Asia was a big success!! Thank you to all of our wonderful sponsors for making this tour possible! Here is more info on the tour schedule and repertoire too. For Facebook users, check out the Facebook event page for it here.

This is the tour poster made our top sponsor Gao's Royal Musical Collection. Hope you like it!.

Longy Recital

I  played a recital with Rasa Vitkauskaite on Sunday, Feb 1 at 7pm in Pickman Hall at The Longy School. Here is a video clip of one of our favorite pieces from the concert! For more info, check out the Facebook event page here. We also played live on WGBH radio on Thursday, January 29 at 3pm on the show Classical Performances hosted by Richard Knisely. If you missed, the show, you can listen to it here.

NEW CD with Claremont Trio!

My new CD Jonathan Cohler & Claremont Trio (Ongaku 024-122) is out! You can listen to sound clips on the Ongaku Records website and place orders for the disc now! This CD was made in collaboration with the renowned Claremont Trio and includes the Brahms and Beethoven trios and the Dohnanyi Sextet with violist Mai Motobuchi (of the Borromeo Quartet) and hornist James Sommerville (of the Boston Symphony Orchestra).

 

Simon Bolivar Symphonic Band

F rom December 2 to 6, 2008, I spent an exciting week conducting the Simon Bolivar Symphonic Band, and teaching masterclasses for the Clarinet Academy of Simon Bolivar University. With the band we did an exhilirating performance of Bernstein's Slava!, Ives' Variations on America, Copland's El Salon Mexico, John Williams' Star Wars Trilogy, Holst's Mars and Jupiter from The Planets, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol. The already short rehearsal schedule of 5 days, was shortened to 4 when airplane delays caused me to miss my connections to Caracas! Despite that and the huge difficulty of the program, the group gave a stellar performance! The musical spirit and talent in Venezuela is just electrifying. I'll definitely be headed back there again soon!!

NEW CD Rhapsodie Française

My CD, Rhapsodie Française, is out, and it includes most of the core repertoire of the "French school." The pianist on the CD is an amazing young multiple prize winning Lithuanian pianist named Rasa Vitkauskaite. She and I are planning to make several more CDs in the coming seasons. It is already available for orders on the Ongaku Records website as well as from Amazon and CD Baby among others.

NEW Live Audio

I posted MP3's of several of my recent live performances on my Recordings page. Click here or access "Recordings" in the menu above.

Iowa Clarinet Day

I n September 2008, I was the featured artist at the Iowa Clarinet Day 2008. It was my first trip to Iowa and I had a great time! Pianist Rasa Vitkauskaite joined me in a recital there on September 6, and I also taught several masterclasses at both Drake University in Des Moines and Central College in Pella. Visiting Pella was like walking on a movie set! What a beautiful place, and the students were wonderful. Thanks go to Cynthia Doggett and Clarence Padilla for organizing such a wonderful event!!

ClarinetFest, Kansas City

I n July 2008, I performed a duo recital with Howard Klug at the ClarinetFest in Kansas City, Missouri. We premiered several new works for two clarinets and piano in various combinations. The new works included a great new duo by Simon Sargon called "Birds of a Feather.." for two A clarinets. Two other premieres included Don Freund Rite Now! and Michael Kibbe Shiva Dances (both for clarinet, bass clarinet and piano). It was a great pleasure to collaborate once again with renowned pedagogue and performer Howard Klug who played some amazing bass clarinet! See pics here

Domaine Forget

I n June 2008, I taught and performed at the beautiful Domaine Forget festival in St. Irenée, Quebec. The students there were wonderful, the festival was expertly managed and organized and all of my colleagues were world class! I spent a wonderful week teaching along side Marie Picard and Lawrie Bloom. While there I also had the great opportunity to perform Stockhausen In Freundschaft on a special Stockhausen memorial concert. That was a special treat. My last night there I had the great privilege of hearing the phenomenal pianist Gabriela Montero play several breathtakingly beautiful and amazing improvisations based on themes offered from the audience. Wow! I will remember that forever. Lawrie, Marie and I had a great time working together both in teaching clarinet and winning at ping pong! And Marie Picard was the most gracious host ever!

Simon Bolivar Symphonic Band

In November 2007, I was in Caracas, Venezuela for 10 days. While there I conducted a wonderful performance of the Simon Bolivar Symphonic Band playing Respighi Pines of Rome and Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 Finale, as well as the Rimsky-Korsakov Clarinet Concerto with soloist Jorge Montilla and several other works. I also taught masterclasses every day as part of the new Masters Degree program in clarinet of the Universidad Simon Bolivar. Pictures of the band, soloists, me, the students, my masterclasses and the dancing afterwards are all here!

Longy Recital

On October 7, 2007, I played a faculty recital at the Longy School of Music. Joining me on the program was a fabulous young piano trio with Judith Lee (violin), Tess Remy-Schumacher (cello) and Christopher Cooley (piano). A few pictures from the reception after the concert are here.

Campos do Jordao

In July 2007, I taught and performed at the International Winter Festival of Campos do Jordao, Brazil where the weather was cooler than last year (sometimes as low as 32 degrees F at night) but when it was beautiful and sunny in the day time, it was more like ~75 degrees F. I had six wonderful fellowship students there from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Costa Rica. I conducted a performance of the Dvorak Serenade for Winds, Op. 44. Here are the 200+ pictures I took while there.

ClarinetFest, Vancouver

ClarinetFest 2007 took place in Vancouver, Canada from July 4 to 8 on the campus of the University of British Columbia. A good time was had by all. I played a recital there in the beautiful Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and taught a musical interpretation masterclass featuring some of the contestants (and winners!) of the orchestral and solo competitions.

YPO China Tour

O n June 30, 2007, I returned from a two-and-a-half-week tour of China with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of NEC. As always, this YPO tour was a thrilling experience for all involved. The orchestra played 12 concerts in 14 days in 10 cities! We visited Beijing, Shichiazhuang, Tianjin, Shenyang, Anshan, Yingkou, Chongqing, Suzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. I took more than 600 pictures of the tour, so you can see them and make prints from snapfish.com by clicking here.

IWWF 2007

IWWF 2007 was a blast from May 29 to June 10 at the Boston Conservatory. Check out this live performance of the Ponchielli Il Convegno with me and Jessica Phillips (New York Metropolitan Opera). To view and get prints of pictures from IWWF 2007 click here for my photos or click here for Kathleen's photos.

The clarinet faculty included yours truly, Valdemar Rodriguez (Simon Bolivar Orchestra), Jessica Philipps (New York Metropolitan Opera), Robert Spring (soloist), and Michael Norsworthy (soloist, Boston Conservatory). We also had the brilliant, young Claremont Trio in residence and three fabulous pianists: Shizue Sano, Eliko Akahori, and Yoko Kida.

Here's a live performance of me with the Claremont Trio playing the sixth Bruch piece! From left to right, that's Julie Bruskin (cello), Emily Bruskin (violin), me, and Donna Kwong (piano).

Here's a live performance of me with the Claremont Trio playing the third movement of Beethoven Trio, Op. 11!

Paquito D'Rivera

Listen to this live recording of me and Paquito D'Rivera playing his piece Contradanza from Paquito's Aires Tropicales Suite. Alon Yavnai is the formidable pianist. See if you can tell which one is Paquito and which one is me!

Fischoff Competition 2007

In May 2007, I took seven groups that I coach to compete in both the Junior and Senior Divisions of the Fischoff Competition. All seven made the Quarterfinals, three made the Semifinals and one of my groups, Attacca Quartet, won 3rd Prize in the Junior Division! For pictures of the trip, click here.

 

Simon Bolivar Orchestra

In April 2007, I had an wonderful time in Caracas conducting the Simon Bolivar Orchestra! We did Bernstein's West Side Story Suite of Symphonic Dances to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that revolutionary, one-of-a-kind musical. Pictures here. Video clips to come. Stay tuned!

Lisbon, Portugal

At the beginning of March 2007, I was featured at the 10th International Clarinet Festival of Lisbon. The festival was held in a beautiful palace, so I guess we got the "royal" treatment! As always, the seafood was delicious, and although the weather was unseasonably cold the performances by artists from all over the world were wonderful. I got a chance to collaborate with the superb Lisbon Clarinet Quartet on "Aires Tropicales" by Paquito D'Rivera and with Jessica Phillips of the New York Metropolitan Opera orchestra (and a former student) on "Il Covegno" by Amilcare Ponchielli. My wonderful pianist was Aniko Harangi. Pictures from Lisbon

Shanghai

In February 2007, Shanghai was an eye-opener once again. The rate of construction and growth in that city and at the Conservatory is simply phenomenal. The clarinet students there are uniformly excellent, and as always the food is delectable and plentiful. Masterclasses almost every day plus rehearsals and a recital made for a busy time. But I was very happy to play together with my former student Izumi Fujiyama who has developed into first-rate professional. My excellent pianist was Xie Beni. Pictures from Shanghai

Texas All-State Orchestra

In January 2007, I had a transformational experience conducting the Texas All-State Orchestra in an incredible performance of Dvorak Carneval Overture and Bartok Concerto for Orchestra. What great people and what unbridled energy and talent! That was my first experience with a standing ovation following the overture!

Campos do Jordao

S ee my photos from the 2006 Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordão in Brazil. I was there for a very exciting three weeks in July of masterclasses, conducting and concerts. I played the Mozart Concerto with the orchestra from Santo André and the Mozart Quintet as well as the Martinu Nonet.

 

The Enterprise

Read the great story from The Enterprise on Sunday, April 23, 2006 here.

Simon Bolivar Orchestra

In January 2006, I was in Caracas, Venezuela, where I conducted Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 with the Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar. Wow what an orchestra! The musical spirit in Venezuela is absolutely incredible. I also played a recital and taught several masterclasses there.

ClarinetFest, Tama, Tokyo

In summer 2005, I was in Japan and Taiwan where it was really hot! From July 16 to July 24, I was in Tama, Tokyo at the ClarinetFest and from July 30 to August 5, I was in Taipei at The 2nd International Clarinet Festival of Taiwan where I played the Copland Concerto with the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall of Taiwan, a gorgeous hall.

YPO Venezuela Tour

In June 2005, I went on a tour of Venezuela and Brazil with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of New England Conservatory.

IWWF 2005

The 2005 International Woodwind Festival from May 31 to June 12 in Boston at The Boston Conservatory was a big success. You can see pictures from the festival too.

The Rite of Spring

Check out the video clip here from the Brockton Symphony Orchestra performance of The Rite of Spring in spring 2005 at Jordan Hall!

Lisbon, Portugal

In March 2005, I was in Lisbon, Portugal.where the cod fish was great, and the people were even better! While there I performed and taught as part of the 8th International Clarinet Encounter of Lisbon.

Caracas, Venezuela

In November 2004, I was in Caracas, Venezuela where I performed and taught at the 6th Festival de Jóvenes Clarinetistas Venezolanos.

Argentina and China

During the summer of 2004, I spent a week in Argentina and two weeks in China playing concerts, teaching, and conducting in Rosario, Buenos Aires, Yantai, and Changchun.
Pictures from Buenos Aires.
Pictures from festival in Yantai.
Pictures from festival in Changchun, China.

The site is updated regularly so stop by again soon!

Best regards,
Jonathan Cohler