TEACHER BIOGRAPHY

Cellist and composer Michael Bonner has been hailed as "delightful and accomplished" by Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe and “first among near equals” by Bay Windows. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared frequently in such venues as Jordan Hall, the Goethe Institute, and live on WGBH radio. He has performed extensively the cello duo repertoire with NEC pianist Sarah Takagi, and their live broadcast performance of the Rachmaninoff cello sonata was selected as one of the top command performances on WGBH radio. He has also been a guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, collaborating with Boston Symphony Orchestra pianist Randall Hodgkinson and BCMS clarinetist Thomas Hill. An avid proponent of new music, he has premiered works by David Horne, Florentine Mulsant, and Eric Sawyer. Mr. Bonner has also collaborated with such artists as Lynn Chang and Hung-Kuan Chen as a faculty member of the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, and taught for many years at the Longy School of Music’s former Preparatory Division, and the Middlesex and Groton Schools. Mr. Bonner holds the bachelor of arts degree with high honors (magna cum laude) in English & American Language and Literature from Harvard College, where he was a recipient of the David McCord Prize for musical excellence, and the Thomas T. Hoopes prize for outstanding scholarship.  His teachers include George Seaman, Jonathan Miller, Kim Scholes, and Rhonda Rider. Mr. Bonner has recorded on the Albany Records label.

His students have won prizes in several competitions, including Junior, Regional, and All-State auditions; the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra Competition; the New England Philharmonic Competition; the Brockton Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition; the Concord Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition; the Arlington Philharmonic Society Competition; the Waltham Philharmonic Concerto Competition; the Newton Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition; Brookline Music School Cello Competition; Longy School of Music Concerto Competition; the Pro Arte Concerto Competition; the Chamber Music Foundation of New England; the Boston University Academy Concerto Competition; and the Belmont Music Department Solo Competition; many of his students also belong to the BYSO, and NEC orchestras, where they have held principal and assistant principal positions; two of his students from Lexington, MA have served as the principal cellists of the Lexington Honors Orchestra and another served as Assistant Principal; he has also taught college-level students from such institutions as Harvard, Yale, and MIT.  Mr. Bonner has also been invited to judge several competitions, including concerto competitions at Harvard College and the New England Conservatory of Music.