Roman Mints

One of the most outstanding and original musicians of his generation, Roman Mints

was named “unofficial leader of the new generation of musicians” by the press

and has collaborated with violinists Gidon Kremer, Alina Ibragimova, Boris

Brovtsyn, Alexander Sitkovetsky; flautist Sharon Bezaly, oboists Dmitri Bulgakov and

Nicholas Daniel; pianists Katya Apekisheva, Ingrid Fliter, Alexander Kobrin, Charles

Owen, Vadym Kholodenko, Lukas Geniušas; cellists Kristina Blaumane, Jamie Walton, Alexander Buzlov and Thomas Caroll; violists Maxim Rysanov and Nils Mönkemeyer; singers Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, William Purefoy, Anna Dennis. He has worked alongside conductors Andrew Davis, Saulius Sondeckis, Vladimir Ziva, Vladimir Ponkin, Philipp Chizhevsky; amongst others. 

Roman has performed with such prominent groups as London Mozart Players, London

Chamber Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Musica Viva Orchestra, Russian Philharmonia, Kremerata Baltica, Prague Soloists and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.

Roman has also performed with Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble – the oldest contemporary music group in Russia.

He has recorded for ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Quartz and other labels, with his

albums featuring a number of world-premiere recordings. An album of works by

Dobrinka Tabakova for ECM was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical

Compendium. His recording of solo violin music, with an innovative recording approach

invented by Roman and dubbed “spatial orchestration,” was a CD of the week at

WQXR Radio New York and on the annual wish list of Fanfare magazine critics. The

album of Leonid Desyatnikov’s music for violin and orchestra was nominated for ICMA

Award and received a Five Stars review for performance and recording with BBC

Music Magazine. His album of Hindemith Sonatas with pianist Alexander Kobrin won a “Supersonic Award” from Pizzicato Magazine. 

Roman has given world premieres of over fifty works by Tabakova,

Desyatnikov, Langer, Bennett, Irvine, Burrell, Filanovsky, Kourliandsky, Kurbatov and many others.

In 1998 Roman Mints and oboist Dmitry Bulgakov founded the Homecoming Chamber

Music Festival in Moscow, which has gained widespread recognition and a substantial

following in Russia. The core of Homecoming concert programmes are themed

selections of works with one powerful underlying but not necessarily musical, idea

behind them. Since the inception of the festival, Roman has authored more than 60

such programmes. In April 2002, Roman co directed the Suppressed Music project in

Russia, which comprised of two concerts and a conference on composers whose

music had been suppressed. A book and CD were released as a result of this project,

by the Klassika XXI Publishing House. After the large-scale invasion of Ukraine started, Roman Mints has declared the festival closed after 25 years since its inception.

Outside the classical field, Roman has worked with free-improvising saxophonist Paul

Dunmall, vocalist Alisa Ten, the Brian Irvine Ensemble, Pokrovsky Ensemble, and

Russian IDM group EU. He has also participated in several theatre productions

including Langer’s Ariadne and Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. He has worked with

theatre directors Vasily Barkhatov and Tim Hopkins, choreographers Alla Sigalova and

Oleg Glushkov and film director Alexander Zeldovich. His recording of the Mozetich

Violin Concerto ‘Affairs of the Heart’ was used in productions by Hong Kong Ballet,

Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Q-dance company.

After the start of Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine Roman has moved back to the UK, where he is currently teaching at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He organised a number of projects in support of Ukraine, including a concert of Ukranian music at the RAM in London. 

Roman Mints began playing the violin at the age of five. In 1994 Roman won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, and also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning prizes at each.

His teachers were Larisa Svetlova, Natalya Fikhtengoltz and Felix Andrievsky. Roman Mints plays a Francesco Ruggieri violin, circa 1685.