Jonathan Cohler

Early career

In 1978, he won the U.S. Components, Inc. Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center (then known as the Berkshire Music Center). He also played clarinet for the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra (now known as the National Repertory Orchestra) in 1979 under conductor Carl Topilow.

He has performed at the International Clarinet Association's annual ClarinetFest (1994, 1997, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) and has appeared in the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago.

His concerto appearances include Rossini's Introduction,Theme and Variations with Boston Classical Orchestra under Harry Ellis Dickson (1997), Gerald Finzi's Clarinet Concerto (2003) and Copland's Clarinet Concerto (2004) with the Orquesta de Cámara Municipal de Rosario in Argentina (2004), Copland's Clarinet Concerto with the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall of Taiwan in Taipei (2005), Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with the Santo Andre Orchestra in Brazil (2006), Scott McAllister's Black Dog with the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble (2011), Debussy's Première rhapsodie with the Boston Conservatory Orchestra (2012), the Gerald Finzi Clarinet Concerto with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro in Brasilia, Brazil (2014), and the clarinet concerti and Concertino by Carl Maria von Weber with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra in Budapest (2015).

As a chamber musician Cohler has recorded and performed with the Claremont Trio, violinist Ilya Kaler, and pianists Janice Weber, Randall Hodgkinson, Judith Gordon, and Rasa Vitkauskaite.

Cohler's conducting engagements have included Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Caracas, Venezuela, and Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker with the Indian Hill Orchestra (Groton, Massachusetts) and the Granite State Ballet Company of New Hampshire, and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra with the Texas All-State Symphony Orchestra in San Antonio. For ten years, from 1996 to 2006, he was the Music Director of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra.

Cohler has created and run various performing/teaching clarinet festivals since 2000 including well-known clarinetists such as Philippe Cuper (Paris Opera), Alessandro Carbonare (Orchestra of St. Cecilia), Ricardo Morales (Philadelphia Orchestra), Paquito D'Rivera, Wenzel Fuchs (Berlin Philharmonic), and Luis Rossi (Chile). These include the International Clarinet Connection (2000, 2001), the International Clarinet and Saxophone Connection (2002), and the International Woodwind Festival (2005, 2007, 2010, 2012).

Cohler's clarinet students have won top prizes in the Geneva International Clarinet Competition, the International AudiMozart Competition in Rovereto, Italy, the International Clarinet Association High School Competition, the Boston Woodwind Society's Harold Wright Clarinet Merit Award, and others. Cohler has coached groups that have won prizes in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Coleman Chamber Music Competition and the Chamber Music Foundation of New England Competition.

Cohler has been an adjudicator for international clarinet and music competitions including the 1st European Clarinet Competition (2010), the Young Artist Competition of the International Clarinet Association (1997, 2009, 2015), and the Canadian National Music Competition.

As of 2017, he is a member of the clarinet, chamber music and conducting faculties of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts since 1998, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee since 2005. Through 2011, he was also a faculty member of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston, where in addition to teaching clarinet and chamber music, he was the assistant conductor of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ongaku Records

In the early 1990s, Cohler founded the classical music record company Ongaku Records, Inc.

Discography