Faculty

Biography

Jonathan Brin is the founding cellist of the Hyperion String Quartet. As a member of the Quartet, he won first prizes at the Coleman, Music Teachers National Association and Green Lake chamber music competitions, and was the bronze medal prizewinner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Praised by The Strad magazine for their “uncommonly high level of homogeneity and confidence”, the Quartet has held residencies at San Diego State University in collaboration with the La Jolla Music Society, the Western Piedmont Symphony in North Carolina, the Empire State Youth Orchestra in Albany, New York and the Sembrich Opera Museum in Bolton Landing, New York.

As a soloist, he was awarded the first place Arden J. Yockey Scholarship for Strings in the Tuesday Musical’s 2003 Competition in Akron, Ohio. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Onondaga Civic Orchestra, the Syracuse University Summer Festival Orchestra and the Kent State University Orchestra. As a sought after chamber musician, he has performed at festivals including Penderecki QuartetFest, La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s SummerFest, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and Strings in the Mountains Festival. Jonathan has collaborated with renowned artists including Anthea Kreston, Eugenia Zukerman, Stephen Taylor, Stewart Rose, Jennifer Frautschi, Benny Kim, Toby Appel, Sophie Shao, Melvin Chen, Raman Ramakrishnan and the Miró, Penderecki and Rossetti string quartets. He has also served as guest cellist with the Miró Quartet.

Jonathan is currently assistant principal cello of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and also a member of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta. He was previously principal cello of the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra and has been guest principal cello with Orchestra New England and Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. He also performs regularly with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic and the Syracuse orchestras.

As an educator, Jonathan has served on the faculty at the NSOA-ASTA Conference at SUNY Fredonia, the Hartt School Community Division, Montana Chamber Music Workshop, Connecticut College, SUNY Adirondack, Lake George Chamber Music Workshop, The College of Saint Rose and Skidmore College. He is currently Director of the Chamber Music Connection program and cello faculty at The Hochstein School.

Jonathan completed his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music with high honors and earned his Master of Music degree from Kent State University as a teaching assistant to the Miró and Miami string quartets. His principal violin teachers were Einar Holm, Steven Doane, Joshua Gindele and Keith Robinson. Other mentors include William Stokking, Rosemary Elliott and Kathleen Kemp. He has performed in masterclasses with Ronald Leonard, Stephen Geber and Matt Haimovitz. He also studied chamber music with members of the Ying, Miró, Miami, Juilliard and Emerson quartets.

Jonathan lives in Rochester, NY with his wife, violinist Amanda Brin and their three children Annabelle, Elliott and Oliver.