Jonathan Butler

Texan cellist, Jonathan Butler has been recognized by the Boston Globe as ‘dynamic and committed.’ Since winning several prizes in the Amsterdam Cello Biennale Competition, he has been engaged by the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra in Europe and Asia, A Far Cry in the US, and Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music in the UK. Jonathan’s interest in contemporary music has resulted in close work with many composers from his own generation as well as notable figures such as Aaron Jay Kernis, Brett Dean, Harrison Birtwhistle, and Julian Anderson. Jonathan was a recipient of the Gregor Piatigorsky scholarship at the New England Conservatory where he studied with Natasha Brofsky, and earned a doctorate; his research developed a pedagogical model to teach extended techniques to young cellists. Previous teachers include Michel Strauss and Richard Aaron, and Jonathan received musical guidance from Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Gabor Takacs-Nagy. As a dedicated pedagogue, committed to passing on the knowledge learned from these figures to the next generation of musicians, Jonathan has held faculty positions at NEC Preparatory School, MIT Emerson Scholars program, and Chamber Music Now, where he also served as Artistic Director. Jonathan currently lives in Los Angeles where he works in the recording studios, playing on pop albums as well as TV and film scores. In his free time, Jonathan enjoys hypertrophy based strength training, evaluates coffee extraction rates with his Chemex, and watches YouTube.