yonatanmiller

Grew up in New York City studied classical violin (12 yrs) and clarinet (3 yrs) Played in the bands Old no. 7 in Binghamton New York (78-80 but continuously there have been reunions most recently the summer of 2004 a series of weekly shows at the Marina Grille in Brick, NJ) In 1981 I was the fiddle player for the Bob Fitzgerald Band in BinghamtonAt the end of the year i moved to Israel and nearly immediately wound up joining THE TAVERNERS of Jerusalem (The Tavern on Rivlin Street) who continued to play around Israel and once in Turkey for the next 22 years The most recent reunion was with David Deckelbaum in Montreal jamming with some of the members of Corteo most notably the whistler Sean LomaxI also entered the Israeli pop scene at that time, appearing in a Hanuka Children's festival with Arik Lavie, meeting at that time Uzi Hitman who later invited me to perform his song in the Pre-Eurovision contest of 1984 with the singer Yigal Bashan. I wound up playing with them for five years as Kmo Tso'ani (Like a Gypsy) and then as Hoppa Hey with our own TV show and four albums including a gold record and several tours abroadI continued to do many educational programs in the Israeli school system while continuing to perform for a variety of famous Israeli singers and actors, recordings and cabaret style shows including playing in trees, at rodeos, on cruise boats, on trains & planes, playing for the general of the US sixth fleet on his flagship, playing for US marines in bomb shelters during the first gulf war, playing for Ben of Ben and Jerry's at the opening of one of his stores (and being fed ice cream at the same time), opening many other well known chains in that country, and many others too numerous to mentionIn 2003 I decided to head back to the USA after so many years and for two years performed in Theatrical productions, with various events bands (club dates) and especially with the Vanavaer Caravan production of their show Pastures of Plenty (featuring choreographed dancing to the songs and sayings of Woodie Guthrie) performing throughout the United States and in Woodie's former hometown, Pampa TX.Since January 2005 I have been playing violin clarinet recorders pennywhistle singing and other nonsense dressed as a clown in the cirque du soleil original production, Corteo.Cirque du Soleil has a big name and grandiose shows but now I know how Guy Laliberte makes his fortune - by exploiting the weak and fearful. If you are young and don't have many demands out of life its a fun gig but if you seek fame or fortune, so forget it.So i have traveled around the world and in 2005-2006 lived in Montreal Quebec City Toronto Minneapolis San Francisco San Jose and finally Phoenix i am getting a nice feeling for these desert surroundings and i am waiting to see what my luck will bring me - the sky's the limit...