Cellist, conductor share long history

Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 | 8:10 a.m.

Internationally acclaimed cellist Nathaniel Rosen says he is eagerly awaiting his debut on a Las Vegas stage Saturday.

Rosen is the featured musician for the season premier of the Las Vegas Philharmonic's "Classical Series" of performances Saturday at UNLV's Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall.

Conducting the orchestra during the event will be Harold Weller, founder and music director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

"I have known Maestro Weller for many years," Rosen said earlier this week during a telephone interview from the Manhattan School of Music, where he teaches. "I am looking forward to performing with him."

In the late 1960s Rosen and Weller were students of Richard Lert, music director and conductor of the Pasadena Symphony from 1936-72. In 1964 Lert received the Gold Baton Award from the American Symphony Orchestra League for his work with young conductors.

To begin the Las Vegas Philharmonic's third season, Rosen will play "Concerto for Cello & Orchestra" by Antonin Dvorak to begin the Philharmonic's third season.

Also on the program are "Dance Overture" by Paul Creston and "Variations & Fugue on a Theme by Purcell" by Benjamin Britten.

Rosen, 53, and Weller, 56, two of Lert's stellar students, have made distinguished names for themselves in the symphonic world.

Weller began his professional career at age 20, when he conducted an opera at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He is a graduate of Miami of Ohio and Ohio State University.

Three years ago Weller founded the Las Vegas Philharmonic, after directing the Flagstaff (Ariz.) Symphony for 15 years.

Rosen, a native of Los Angeles, began studying the cello at age 6. He studied with acclaimed cellist Gregor Piatigorsky at age 13 and three years later became a professional cellist.

In 1977 Rosen won the International Naumburg Competition and the following year was the first American cellist to win the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow.

"That is the thing that made my career as a soloist," Rosen said. "In this business, you need to become known, and it used to be that a contest like that (Tchaikovsky) could make you known all over the world."

Today, he said, it is difficult for musicians such as himself to gain fame.

"There are too many contests," he said. "It is tougher to become known now."

Rosen took advantage of his international stardom and has worked steadily as a solo cellist performer ever since.

In addition to doing commercial work in studios, he performs in concerts all over the world, appearing with such orchestras as Germany's Leipzig Gewandhaus and Dresden State Orchestra, and orchestras in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, London, Seattle and Houston.

Rosen also teaches. "It's one of the things I have always done," he said.

In fact, he was scheduled to teach a class in Las Vegas in advance of his concert.

The Manhattan School of Music, where Rosen usually teaches, is several miles from the World Trade Center.

On the day of the terrorist attacks, he was in Queens, on the western tip of Long Island, performing at a recital.

"I couldn't get back to Manhattan. I stayed with friends that night," Rosen said. The next day he was able to return home.

"Things are far from normal here, but we do normal things," Rosen said. "There is a shared realization that these are not normal times in which we do normal things."

But, he said, he has resumed his life.

"I'm looking forward to bringing my cello and reacquainting with my friends in Las Vegas," Rosen said. "Having grown up in L.A., I know Las Vegas is a magnificent place for working musicians."

After his appearance here, Rosen will return to New York and prepare for another concert in Cincinnati.

"My (appearances) are never predictable," Rosen said. "Concert artists have to be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."