Photo by Susan Wilson, susanwilsonphoto.com

Before joining the Boston Symphony in 1971, Jonathan Miller held appointments as principal cellist of the Juilliard, Hartford, and San Diego symphonies. In addition, as a winner of the Jeunesses Musicales auditions, he was awarded a Carnegie Recital Hall debut.

Despite the considerable successes achieved early in his career, Miller came to the instrument relatively late. He was already a student of literature at the University of California at Berkeley when a master class given by Pablo Casals inspired him to change course and devote his life to the cello.

At that point, Miller began studies with Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio. Miller also sought out the great pedagogues of different schools, such as Garbousova, Rose, Shapiro, and Lustgarten, and played in the master classes of Piatigorsky, Fournier, and Rostropovich.

Miller is founder and artistic director of the Boston Artists Ensemble. Created in 1980, the group presented in its first year 20 live concerts at WGBH in Boston. These performances were simultaneously broadcast nation-wide to 80 stations. The Boston Artists Ensemble is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts.

Additional chamber music credits include Boston Symphony and Tanglewood chamber music prelude concerts, and two seasons touring the United States with the New York String Sextet. He has also appeared as a member of the Fine Arts Quartet.

Miller has performed as soloist with the Boston Pops, Hartford Symphony, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of Boston. In 1990, at the invitation of Rostropovich, he was a soloist at the American Cello Congress. He appeared a second time in 1996.

Miller has taught at New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, and at Boston University at Tanglewood.