Signature Sound

A modern player with a "signature sound" and distinctive style of playing, Mark Kosower embodies the concept of the complete musician performing as concerto soloist with symphony orchestras, in solo recitals, and as a much sought-after chamber musician. He is Principal Cello of The Cleveland Orchestra and a scholar and teacher of cello. His performance repertoire and recorded discography are testaments to a deep devotion, not only to frequently heard repertoire such as Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations and the concertos of Haydn, Walton, Elgar and Dvorak but, significantly, to less well-known concertos of Alberto Ginastera, Miklos Rozsa, Frederic Gulda and Victor Herbert. Kosower began cello studies with his father who, upon hearing 1 and 1/2 year-old Mark sing the melodies his father was practicing, recognized Mark's natural musical talent and gave him his first cello. Important academic and life-long influences were Janos Starker who invited him to study at Indiana University and Joel Krosnick with whom he studied with at The Juilliard School. He is a former member of Chamber Music Two, a two-year residency program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He received an Avery Fisher Career Grant, a SONY Grant and was a top prize winner in both the Rostropovich and Pablo Casals International Cello Competitions including special prizes at both competitions for the best interpretation of newly commissioned works by Marco Stroppa and Cristobal Halffter. He was Grand Prize winner of both the Irving Klein International String Competition and the WAMSO Competition of the Minnesota Orchestra. Kosower is known for varied traditional and contemporary repertoire such as the Haydn C Major Concerto which he has performed in recent seasons with Jorge Mester and the Orquesta Filarmónica Boca del Rio in Mexico, and with the Columbus Symphony conducted by Robert Moody; Strauss’s Don Quixote which he has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony conducted by Andrey Boreyko; The Dvorak Concerto which he has performed with Tito Muñoz and the Phoenix Symphony; the Brahms’s Double Concerto which he has performed with Franz Welser-Möst conducting the Cleveland Orchestra at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami; Ernst Bloch’s Schelomo with which he has performed with Stefan Sanderling and the Toledo Symphony; Victor Herbert’s Concerto #2 which he has performed with the Dayton Philharmonic; and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic. His recordings include Eberhard Klemmstein’s Cello Concerto with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Victor Herbert Cello Concertos with JoAnn Falletta and Belfast’s Ulster Orchestra for Naxos International in April 2016. With the Cleveland Orchestra, Kosower has appeared with Nicholas McGegan conducting Haydn C Major Concerto at the Blossom Music Festival, Sir Andrew Davis conducting Strauss’s Don Quixote, Bramwell Tovey conducting the Samuel Barber Concerto, Herbert Blomstedt conducting the Dvorak Concerto, Gustavo Gimeno conducting the Ginastera Concerto No. 2, and Ton Koopman conducting Boccherini's Concerto in D Major G.479. Other orchestral appearances have included the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Florida, Grand Rapids, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Phoenix, Seattle, Syracuse, Virginia, the Ravinia Festival, San Jose’s Symphony Silicon Valley, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and recitals at the Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the National Gallery of Art and on the Great Performer's Series at Lincoln Center. In past seasons he has appeared internationally as soloist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Filarmonica de Minas Gerais in Brazil, and the Orquestra Sinfonica de Venezuela, as well as solo performances at the Chatelet in Paris, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. In 2017 Mark Kosower launched Bach for Humanity, an initiative and three-year commitment to bringing the message of J.S. Bach to different parts of the greater Cleveland area including the elderly, the underprivileged, students, and the general public. During these three years Mr. Kosower performed the complete cello suites and his own transcriptions of the violin sonatas and partitas for cello to widespread acclaim in both conventional and nonconventional venues such as the Cleveland Cello Society, the Cleveland School of the Arts, Judson Manor, and the Cosgrove Center for the homeless. During the COVID-19 pandemic Mr. Kosower performed all six Bach cello suites in two live-streamed performances over Facebook from Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland to raise money for victims of COVID-19. He will perform all six cello suites again in 2021 at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Kosower has worked with students in lessons and master classes around the world including the New World Symphony fellows, the Shanghai Orchestra Academy, and the Baccareli Institute in São Paulo. During the summer of 2020 Mr. Kosower taught classes and lessons online during COVID-19 for Carnegie Hall’s NYO-USA program, the Virtual Cello Academy of Cincinnati Young Artists, the Colorado College of Music, and the Borromeo Festival of Switzerland. Mark Kosower is a frequent guest at international chamber music festivals including the Santa Fe, the Eastern Music, the North Shore Chamber Music, the Pacific Music (of Japan), Breckenridge Music Festival, and Colorado's Strings Music festivals among others. Mark Kosower’s previous posts include Conservatory Faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 2010-19, Solo Cellist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany from 2006 - 2010, and Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2005 - 2007. .

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