Word: kotova
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...soft-spoken Kotova eschews makeup and wears her hair pulled back severely, as if to persuade suspicious critics that her modeling days are over. Not that her first CD leaves any doubt of it. The glamour-girl album art notwithstanding, her expressive performances of such yearning miniatures as Tchaikovsky's D Minor Nocturne and Rachmaninoff's Vocalise--the second of which she orchestrated--are clearly the work of a gifted artist. Her tone is warm and focused, her interpretations restrained yet quietly intense. No less striking are her own compositions, especially Sketches from the Catwalk, a set of laconic, minimalist...
...funny thing happened to Russian cellist Nina Kotova on the way to Carnegie Hall: she became a fashion model instead. Nine years ago, she was just another down-at-heel ex-prodigy, so poor she didn't even own a cello. Then she wandered into an open call at New York City's Ford Modeling Agency, where the fact that she looks like a cross between Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman was considered an asset, not a distraction. Now Kotova, who turns 28 this month, is off the runways and back onstage, touring the U.S. and promoting her self-titled...
Such stories--and such hazel-eyed looks--are a publicist's dream, especially at a time when classical-record sales are chronically depressed and many labels are willing to resort to any gimmick, however fatuous, in order to score crossover hits. But Kotova is more than just another megapretty face; she is also a musician of high seriousness and real talent...
...Kotova is scheduled to make her New York City debut this Saturday at Carnegie Hall, where she will play Tchaikovsky's showy Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, followed by a barnstorming tour that takes her all the way from Brazil to Japan. Though she already seems well launched toward stardom, anyone who expects her to take the low road to popular acclaim is in for a surprise. "I am asked so many times," she says, "what do you think, that classical music is dead, dead, dead? Not at all. It's starting to bloom again...
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