Cellist Nathaniel Rosen gained American recognition upon winning the 1977 International Naumburg Competition and international stardom the following year when he became the first American cellist ever to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky International Competition. Since then, he has been the esteemed guest soloist with the world’s foremost orchestras, including the New York, Los Angeles and Czech philharmonics; the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Dresden State orchestras; l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; and the London, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Dallas, Houston, and Vancouver symphonies. At age six, Mr. Rosen began studying the cello with Eleonore Schoenfeld in his native California. Seven years later he met the legendary Gregor Piatigorsky, who soon became his teacher and mentor. By twenty-two, Rosen had become his assistant as well, a post he retained for five years. At seventeen, Nathaniel Rosen toured the Soviet Union as a finalist in the Third International Tchaikovsky Competition, where he was the youngest of the 42 competing cellists, and one of three Americans to win a prize. He returned the Moscow twelve years later (1978) and became the first Gold Medal-winning American instrumentalist since Van Cliburn (1958). Mr. Rosen’s New York debut occurred in 1970 as winner of the Piatigorsky Award of the New York Violoncello Society. A Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant made possible a 1986 concert at Alice Tully Hall, where he premiered a work by William Kraft. Other career highlights include two seasons as principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and associations with Music from Marlboro and the popular Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles. As principal cellist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, he gave the premiere performances of Robert Linn’s Fantasia for Cello and Chamber Orchestra, commissioned by Sir Neville Marriner. In 1988, Mr. Rosen and violinist Elmar Oliveira gave the world premiere performances of Ezra Laderman’s Concerto for Violin and Cello, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the two soloists’ Gold Medal victories at the Tchaikovsky Competition. Nathaniel Rosen served as artistic director of the Interlochen Summer Chamber Music Series and is a founding member of the Sitka Summer Music Festival. His recordings include Nathaniel Rosen Plays Brahms, featuring Brahms’s Cello Sonatas 1 and 2, along with Mendelssohn’s “Song Without Words”; plus Nathaniel Rosen in Concert with performances of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme and Shostakovich’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, both on John Marks Records. His discography also includes Orientale: Romantic Music for the Cello (North Star),featuring works by Granados, de Falla, Popper, and Saint-Saëns, among others. A two-disc set of Bach Suites for Solo Cello was released in November 1994 by the John Marks label. Mr. Rosen’s most recent release, Music for a Glass Bead Game, was nominated for an Indie Award. Mr. Rosen holds the Chauncey Devereux Stillman Chair for Distinguished Visiting Artist at Thomas More College in New Hampshire, is Artist-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and has been on the string faculty at Manhattan School of Music since 1981. He plays a 1738 Montagnana cello. Manhattan School of Music faculty 1981 - 2008.

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