Nina Kotova / The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia / Dirk Brossé LESHNOFF - MENDELSSOHN

According to Newsweek magazine, Russian -born cellist Nina Kotova “ is a fantastically gifted cellist. Very expressive, imaginative... she has a powerful stage presence”. Time magazine states: “She is a musician of high seriousness and real talent”. She has been the subject of numerous features in Vogue, Elle, Hello, The Sun day Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal. Nina Kotova has appeared on the covers of Classic FM, Gramophone China, Il Venerdi Italia and Reader's Digest and on television on A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts” and the “Charlie Rose Show”. 

Nina Kotova studied at the Moscow Conservatory and the Musikhochschule in Cologne, giving her first performance as a soloist with orchestra at the age 11 and graduating summa cum laude. She made her Western debut at the Wigmore Hall, performed at the Barbican Centre in London in 1996 and made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1999, after which she released her chart -topping debut album for Philips Classics. 

Ms. Kotova has performed in recital and as a soloist with major orchestras across the globe touring the capitals of Europe, Asia and the Americas. Ms. Kotova has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and at the Berlin Philharmonic . She has collaborated with leading artists and conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Jean Yves Thibaudet, Antonio Pappano, John Malkovich, Helene Grimaud, Jeremy Irons, Joshua Bell, Lang Lang, Sarah Chang, Sting and many more. She has had the distinction of performing live in broadcast from Red Square in Moscow, for the Imperial family of Japan and at Buckingham Palace in a special concert for Prince Charles. 

In 2011 Ms. Kotova was presented an award for her outstanding cultural contribution to Tuscany from the Tuscan -American Association as a co-founder of the Tuscan Sun Festival . Nina Kotova has also taught as an Artist in Residence at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. 

In addition to her debut album for Philips Classics, Nina Kotova has recorded the Bloch “Shelomo” and her own Cello Concerto, the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra for Sony Classics, and on the Deutsche Grammophon compilation “Masters of the Bow” paying homage to the greatest cellists of the last 50 years. She has most recently released her recording of the Bach Six Cello Suites for Warner Classics. 

A composer herself and a champion of contemporary music, Ms. Kotova has commissioned and premiered numerous works from leading composers. Her Cello Concerto was premiered in San Francisco to rave reviews. The San Francisco Chronicle said: “Like Rihm in 1974, so Kotova in 2000 stands in defiance of last century’s modernism and the new simplicity of so much recent music. Her Cello Concerto is a complex, gripping affair.”