 


One of the world’s outstanding cellists
Mark Kosower, will return to Park City to perform with the Park City Music Festival are Thursday July 28 at the Park City Community Church (7:30pm) and Sunday, July 31 at Temple Har Shalom (3:00pm). Kosower has earned an international reputation among musicians and critics alike for his extraordinary instrumental mastery, musical integrity and wonderful collegial manner. For the July 28th concert, Kosower will be joined by his wife, pianist Jee-Won Oh, his recital partner, in performances of a cello-piano showpiece and the Brahms Clarinet Trio, with clarinetist Russell Harlow. Violinists Monte Belknap and Walter Olivares, along with violist Leslie Harlow, will join Kosower for the Glazunov 5th String Quartet.
For the July 31 concert, Kosower personally requested the Reger Cello and Piano Sonata (a work he performs with great flair and devotion). He will join his colleagues for Beethoven’s ever-popular “Archduke” Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, the Elgar Piano Quintet and the Taneyev “Canzona” for Clarinet and Strings.
As a recitalist Mr. Kosower has performed on the Great Performer’s Series at Lincoln Center, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Aspen Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He has also given solo performances in some of the world’s most prestigious venues including the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Berlin’s Komische Oper, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, and in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall. In addition to his catalogue with Naxos he has also recorded for Ambitus, Delos, and VAI.
Mark Kosower’s performance highlights in 2009/10 included a Netherlands debut recital at the de Doelen in Rotterdam, a return recital engagement in Coral Gables, and appearances in Munich and Nuremberg with the Juilliard String Quartet.
In addition to his activities as a soloist, Mr. Kosower has been named Principal Cello of the Cleveland Orchestra by Franz Welser-Möst as well as Teacher of Cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2009. Previous positions held include Solo Cellist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany from 2006-10 and Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2005-07. Mr. Kosower began to study cello at the age of 1 ½ with his father and later studied with Janos Starker at Indiana University and Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School.
Highlights of the 2010/11 season include a return to the Florida Orchestra for three performances of the Dvorak Concerto with Stefan Sanderling, a 5-concert tour of the Haydn C Major Concerto with the New York Chamber Players in their inaugural season, a recital for the Cleveland Cello Society, return engagements in Germany with the Erlangen Kammerorchester and in recital at the Mozartverein in Nuremberg, and an appearance at the prestigious Festival de Campos in Brazil.
A strong advocate of both 20th and 21st century music Mr. Kosower has brought lesser-known contemporary masterworks to international attention in recent years. During the 2009/10 season Mr. Kosower recorded Alberto Ginastera’s Cello Concerto No. 1 for Naxos with Lothar Zagrosek and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra making him the first cellist to record the complete catalogue of works for solo cello by the composer. He also was the soloist in the world premiere recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Rhapsodie for Cello and Orchestra with the Budapest Concert Orchestra MAV, also for Naxos. Both recordings are to be released in 2011. Other premieres have included the world premiere of Cristóbal Halffter’s Klagelied eines verwundeten Vogels for solo cello as well as U.S. premieres of Yuri Falik’s Concerto della Passione and Marco Stroppa’s Ay, there’s the rub for solo cello.
In 2008/09 Mr. Kosower toured and recorded Ginastera’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Bamberg Symphony and performed the Monn Concerto with the St. George Strings in Belgrade. He also made solo and recital appearances in Phnom Penn, Rio de Janeiro, Sáo Paulo, Seoul, and throughout the United States. In the summer of 2008 Mark Kosower saw two albums released to widespread critical acclaim: Ginastera’s complete works for cello and piano, and an album of Hungarian music with works by Dohnányi, Bartók, Kodály, Popper, Liszt, and Rózsa, both for Naxos.
An eloquent orchestral soloist, Mr. Kosower has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Florida, Grand Rapids, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Phoenix, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Syracuse, and Toledo; the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. International appearances include the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Kansai Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic, and the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Kosower has collaborated with many prominent conductors such as James DePriest, Christoph Eschenbach, Joanne Falletta, Erich Kunzel, Nicholas McGegan, Anton Nanut, Stefan Sanderling, Gunther Schuller, Gerard Schwarz, Joseph Silverstein, Hugh Wolff, and Lothar Zagrosek.
A former member of Chamber Music Two, a two-year residency at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mr. Kosower makes frequent appearances at chamber music societies and festivals throughout the United States and abroad, in performances with such esteemed musicians as Robert Mann, Leon Fleisher, and Janos Starker.
Mr. Kosower has been the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, a SONY Grant, and has been a top prize winner in both the Rostropovich and Pablo Casals International Cello competitions including a special prize in both competitions for best interpretation of the newly commissioned works by Marco Stroppa and Cristóbal Halffter. He has also been the Grand Prize winner of both the Irving Klein International String Competition and the WAMSO Competition of the Minnesota Orchestra.
