Born: June 9, 1948 (Altadena, CA)

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Nathaniel Rosen was winner of the 1977 Naumburg Cello Competition, and winner of the Gold Medal in the 1978 International Tchaikovsky Competition

‍Rosen grew up playing string quartets with his father, who was an amateur violist. His first cello teacher was Eleonore Schoenfeld, with whom he began lessons at the age of 6, studying at the University of Southern California. At 13, he joined the Piatigorsky Master Class at the University of Southern California and later became Piatigorsky's teaching assistant, a post he held for 5 years. He also studied cello with Laurence Lesser and chamber music with Jascha Heifetz and William Primrose. While studying at USC, he became a founding member and eventually principal cellist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra led by Neville Marriner.

In 1977, at the age of 30, he became principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn.

Rosen has performed worldwide as soloist with great conductors and orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has taught at the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Southern California, the University of Illinois, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

He has taught at the California State University, Northridge, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and the University of Illinois as well as at Manhattan School of Music and the USC Thornton School of Music.

Since 2011, Rosen has made his home in Japan.

His important and historical cello was crafted in 1738 by Domenico Montagnana, the "Mighty Venetian." One of the instrument's previous owners was Adrien-Francois Servais (1807–1866), the man who invented the endpin.

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