Nina Kotova


Nina Kotova is a Russian American cellist. As well as being a versatile artist she performs both as a soloist with major orchestras and as a chamber musician around the world.

Education

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.

Career

Kotova made her Western debut at the Wigmore Hall, performed at the Barbican Centre in London in 1996, released her chart-topping debut album for Philips Classics, and made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1999.
Kotova has performed in recital and as a soloist with major orchestras across the globe touring the capitals of Europe, Asia and the Americas. She has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and at the Berlin Philharmonic and has collaborated with leading artists and conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Antonio Pappano, John Malkovich, Hélène 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 Kotova received an award for outstanding cultural contribution to Tuscany from the Tuscan-American Association as a co-founder of the Tuscan Sun Festival. She co-founded the Tuscan Sun Festival in 2003 and its sister-festival Festival Del Sole in Napa Valley in 2006 and served as the Artistic Director of the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy.
She has taught as an Artist in Residence at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas.
In addition to her debut album for Philips Classics, she has recorded the Bloch Schelomo and her own Cello Concerto, the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra for Sony, and the Deutsche Grammophon compilation Masters of the Bow, paying homage to the greatest cellists of the last 50 years. She released a recording of the Bach Cello Suites, a recording of Russian sonatas with pianist Fabio Bidini for Warner Classics and Nina Kotova Plays Tchaikovsky recording for Delos Productions with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev.
She has been the subject of numerous features in Vogue, Elle,Hello!, Harper's Bazaar, Newsweek, The Sunday Telegraph, and the Wall Street Journal. She has appeared on the covers of Classic FM, Classical Music magazine, Gramophone China, Il Venerdi Italia, Record Forum, and Reader's Digest.

Discography