Jonathan Flaksman

Assistant Principal Cello

Jonathan Flaksman, born in Akron, Ohio in 1981, started playing the cello at five years of age. His first regular teacher was Madalena Burle-Marx. He studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Richard Aaron and the Juilliard School with Fred Sherry. He graduated from Mannheim University in Germany in the class of his father Michael Flaksman and completed an artist diploma in orchestral studies. He has had master classes with Harvey Shapiro, Siegfried Palm, Bernard Greenhouse, Youngchang Cho, Jens Peter Maintz, Frans Helmerson, and Ralph Kirshbaum among many others. He attended Interlochen Arts Camp and music festivals in Aspen, Schleswig-Holstein, Cividale (Italy), Łancut (Poland), and Aurora Chamber Music in Sweden. He played in National Theater Mannheim, and as principal cellist of Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and La Folia Baroque Orchestra. As soloist and chamber musician he has traveled the United States, Europe, and Asia. He attends the Ascoli Piceno Festival annually and performed as soloist with the Bari Symphony at the Carl Orff Festival in Putignano. He has given masterclasses in Italy and in California and has served on the jury of various competitions. He currently lives in Los Angeles, plays with the symphonies of Pasadena and Modesto, and records for tv and film. He is also active as a composer and arranger. He recently won auditions to be Assistant Principal Cellist of New Mexico Philharmonic and to join the Long Beach Symphony. He is tenured since 2015 as Assistant Principal Cellist of Santa Barbara Symphony.