INTRODUCING THE ARTISTS:

Cellist Nathaniel Rosen gained instant recognition in America in 1977 when he won the prestigious Naumberg Competition and global recognition in 1978 when he became the first American cellist to win the Tchaikovsky International Competition's Gold Medal. Since that time, audiences throughout North American, Central America, Europe and Asia have had the opportunity to enjoy his performances in recital and with many of the world's greatest orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony, Dresden State Orchestra, l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Czech Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony and on PBS telecasts with the Pittsburgh, Boston Leipzig Gewandhaus, Atlanta and Waterloo Festival Orchestras. Rosen began studying the cello at the age of six with Eleanor Schoenfeld in his native California. Seven years later, while participating in the Coleman Chamber Music Auditions, he met Gregor Piatigorsky, who soon became his teacher and mentor. By the age of twenty-two, Rosen had become Piatigorsky's assistant, a post he retained until the master's death in 1976. Mr. Rosen made his New York debut in 1970 as winner of the Piatigorsky Award of the New York Violincello Society. A Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant made possible an Alice Tully Hall concert in 1976, where Mr. Rosen premiered a work by William Kraft. As the 1977 Naumberg winner, Mr. Rosen was presented in recital at Alice Tully Hall in 1977 and 1978. In the spring od 1988, Mr. Rosen and violinist Elmar Oliveira performed the world and New York City premieres of Ezra Laderman's Concerto for Violin and Cello, dedicated to and commissioned by the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the two soloists' Gold Medal triumphs at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Mr. Rosen is currently a visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He is also artist-in-residence at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.

Pavlina Dokovska represents the young generation of Bulgarian pianists at its best.
She gave her first solo recital at the age of nine in the town of Rousse where she was born and performed with orchestra when she was twelve. A few years later she graduated from the Sofia State conservatory. After further studies with Yvone Lefebure in Paris, Miss Dokovska completed her musical education as a Fulbright scholar at the Juilliard School of Music in New York studying with Beveridge Webster. She received her Master of Music degree in May of 1980. Miss Dokovska was a first prize winner at the Claude Debussy in France, and a few months later won the first prize at the International Piano Competition in Senigallia, Italy.
She is an artist of international renown, having performed in both eastern and western Europe, the Orient, the United States and Canada. She has also appeared as guest artist at the Festival Dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, the Mai Musical in Bordeaux, France and the International Interforum Festival in Hungary.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM:

"...Rosen's strong impassioned readings of these powerful sonatas makes for a compelling disc. The technical requirements of both sonatas are substantial, but where Rosen particularly excels in his ability to reach the deep, tragic center of these works, Dokovska is a full and equal partner in the music-making..."

Melinda Bargreen The Seattle Times