Charles Rosen

Charles Rosen, the eminent pianist and music scholar, was born in New York City and entered the Juilliard School of Music at the age of 6. Five years later he left to study privately with Moritz Rosenthal, a pupil of Franz Liszt, and his wife Hedwig Kenner, a pupil of Theodore Leschetizky, thus inheriting the great romantic tradition in a direct line.

Mr. Rosen earned his doctorate at Princeton University in French literature in 1951, the same year he launched his performance career and made his first recording, the world premiere recording of Debussy's Etudes.

His most celebrated books are The Classical Style and The Romantic Tradition, both considered classics in their field. In 1995, Harvard University Press published his The Romantic Generation:
Music 1827-1850, an expanded version of his Norton Lectures while he occupied the prestigious Charles Eliot Norton Chair of Poetics at Harvard. A companion CD included Mr. Rosen's performances of works discussed in the book.

His discography ranges from Bach and Scarlatti to Chopin, Martinù, Debussy, Ravel and Schönberg. Contemporary composers including Pierre Boulez and Elliott Carter have sought out Mr. Rosen to give first performances of their works.