Mihail Jojatu

Romanian-born cellist Mihail Jojatu joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra's cello section in 2001 and became fourth chair at the start of the 2003-04 season. He studied at the Bucharest Academy of Music before coming to the United States in 1996, where he attended Boston Conservatory of Music and studied with former BSO cellist Ronald Feldman. He also worked privately with Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio and, with BSO principal cellist Jules Eskin through Boston University. Jojatu has collaborated with such prestigious artists as Yefim Bronfman, Lars Vogt, Sarah Chang, Glenn Dicterow, Peter Serkin, Gil Shaham, members of the Juilliard and Muir string quartets, and Seiji Ozawa, who asked him to substitute for Mstislav Rostropovich in rehearsing the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. A winner of Boston University's Concerto Competition — for which he appeared as a soloist with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops — he also won first prize in the Aria Concerto Competition at Boston Conservatory and was awarded the Carl Zeise Memorial Prize in his second year as a Tanglewood Fellow. Jojatu serves on faculties of TMC and Boston Conservatory. Solo performance highlights include concertos with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, Berkshire Symphony, Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Bucharest under Sergiu Comissiona, and the Indian Hill Symphony Orchestra under Bruce Hangen. Jojatu has given master classes and performed extensively in Romania, Japan, and Italy. In 2009 he was invited to play at Senator Edward Kennedy's memorial service. He gave the Boston Pops premiere of Friedrich Gulda's concerto for cello and wind orchestra in June 2011. Along with three of his colleagues from the BSO cello section, Jojatu is a founding member of the acclaimed Boston Cello Quartet.