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.”
The subject of numerous features in Vogue, Elle, Hello, The Sunday Telegraph, and The Wall Street Journal, Kotova has also appeared on the covers of Classic FM, Gramophone China, Il Venerdì Italia and Reader’s Digest and on television on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and Charlie Rose.
Nina Kotova studied at the Moscow Conservatory and the Musikhochschule in Cologne, giving her first performance as a soloist with an orchestra at age 11 and graduating summa cum laude. She made her western debut at 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.
Nina Kotova gave her first performance as a soloist with an orchestra at age 11.
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. In addition to collaborating 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, Kotova 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 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. She has also taught as an artist-in-residence at the University of Texas in Austin.
In addition to her debut album for Philips Classics, Kotova has recorded Bloch’s Schelomo, the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and her own cello concerto.
She also appeared on the Deutsche Grammophon compilation Masters of the Bow, paying homage to the greatest cellists of the last 50 years. In 2014, she released her recording of Bach’s six cello suites for Warner Classics.
A composer herself and a champion of contemporary music, Kotova has commissioned and premiered numerous works from leading composers. Her cello concerto 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.”
Palm Springs Life Festival, March 20 through April 24, 2016. Tickets: www.palmspringslifefestival.com
Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Nina Kotova, 7 p.m. March 31, Rancho Mirage Amphitheater, 71560 San Jacinto Drive. Presented by El Paseo Jewelers.