Alumni Watch: Jonathan A. Cohler '88

At age six, most children have just graduated to watching “Sesame Street.” But by that tender age, little Jonathan A. Cohler ’88 had already traded in Big Bird for the big, bad world of the clarinet.

Childhood talent matured into adult honors. Prior to attending Harvard, Cohler honed his musical skills just around the corner, under teacher Pasquale Cardillo, the principal clarinetist of the Boston Pops. In his first year at Harvard, Cohler won a fellowship from the world-renowned Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, becoming its youngest member.

“Harvard was an ideal environment for me,” Cohler recalls in an interview. “It gave me the freedom to build my own musical environment and take advantage of all the great resources and facilities that are only available at a place like Harvard.”

Cohler participated in the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and founded the Harvard-Radcliffe Ensemble Society, a chamber music ensemble that performed regularly at Sanders Theatre and featured varieties of chamber music from all musical periods.

Choler has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums. His debut LP, “Cohler on Clarinet” was awarded five stars by BBC Music Magazine and his follow-up “More Cohler on Clarinet” was considered one of “the best CDs of the year” by that same publication.

This past summer, Cohler spent time in Taipei at the Second International Clarinet Festival of Taiwan. Much of Cohler’s time is spent abroad: he has showcased his musical talent in Venezuela, Brazil, and Portugal.

As a member of the faculty at Cambridge’s Longy School of Music, Cohler is still tied to the Cambridge community. He is currently the Music Director and Conductor of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra and the assistant conductor of the Youth Philarmonic Orchestra of the New England Conservatory.