Roman Mints Explained

Roman Mints (born 1976 in Moscow) is a British violinist. He has worked with other violinists and together with oboist Dmitry Bulgakov founded the Homecoming Chamber Music Festival. He has given premieres of various works and recorded a number of albums.

Early life and studies

Roman Mints was born in Moscow and began playing the violin at the age of five. In 1994, he 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, alongside contemporaries Dobrinka Tabakova, Elena Langer, Maxim Rysanov and Kristina Blaumane. [1]

Artistic activities

Roman Mints 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, Andrey Gugnin, Lukas Geniušas; cellists Boris Andrianov, Jamie Walton, Alexander Buzlov and Kristina Blaumane; violists Maxim Rysanov and Nils Mönkemeyer; singers Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, William Purefoy and Anna Dennis. He has worked alongside conductors Andrew Davis, Saulius Sondeckis, Vladimir Ziva, Vladimir Ponkin, Philipp Chizhevsky and others. He has performed with groups as London Mozart Players, London Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Musica Viva Orchestra, Russian Philharmonia, Kremerata Baltica, Prague Soloists and Prague Sinfonia.[2]

Roman has given Russian premieres of works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Tavener, James MacMillan, Giacinto Scelsi and Marjan Mozetich. He has also given world premieres of over fifty works by Dobrinka Tabakova, Leonid Desyatnikov, Elena Langer, Ed Bennett, Brian Irvine, Diana Burrell, Artem Vassiliev, Alexey Kurbatov and others.

In 1998, Roman Mints and oboist Dmitry Bulgakov founded the Homecoming Chamber Music Festival which takes place annually in Moscow. 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 Mints has authored more than 60 such programmes. In April 2002, he co-directed the Suppressed Music project in Russia, which consisted 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.[3]

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.

Roman Mints plays a Francesco Ruggieri violin, circa 1685.

Recordings

Roman Mints 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.[4] 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.

Discography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Concert News Online Roman Mints. concertnewsonline.com. 2019-03-19.
  2. Web site: Roman Mints Artist Quartz Music Limited Sound With Vision Classical Music Record Label. Quartz Music Limited. en-GB. 2019-03-19.
  3. Web site: Roman Mints - Violin. www.charlespadleyartists.com. 2019-03-19.
  4. Web site: Bulgarian Composer Dobrinka Tabakova Nominated for Grammy Awards 2014 - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency. www.novinite.com. 2019-03-19.
  5. Web site: DESYATNIKOV Sketches to sunset. Arloff. Steve. www.musicweb-international.com. 2019-03-18.
  6. Web site: Leonid DESYATNIKOV: Sketches to Sunset; Russian Seasons for violin, voice and strings. Coombs. Daniel. 2017-07-21. Audiophile Audition. en-US. 2019-03-18.
  7. Web site: Classical CDs Weekly: Leonid Desyatnikov, Dimitar Nenov, Ars Nova Copenhagen. Rickson. Graham. www.theartsdesk.com. 15 July 2017 . 2019-03-18.
  8. Web site: DESYATNIKOV Sketches to Sunset. Russian Seasons. 2017-06-13. www.gramophone.co.uk. en. 2019-03-18.
  9. Web site: SCHNITTKE Works for Violin & Piano. Fanning. David. 2016-08-09. www.gramophone.co.uk. en. 2019-03-18.
  10. News: Elena Langer: Landscape with Three People CD review – nimble and light performances. Molleson. Kate. 2016-01-28. The Guardian. 2019-03-18. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  11. News: Roman Mints: Dance of Shadows review – conviction and insight. Maddocks. Fiona. 2014-05-31. The Observer. 2019-03-18. en-GB. 0029-7712.
  12. Web site: Interview with Roman Mints. Anderson. Martin. 2016-03-12. Fanfare Magazine. en-US. 2019-03-18.
  13. Web site: ECM Records. Records. E. C. M.. ECM Records. en. 2019-03-18.
  14. Web site: Leonid Desyatnikov: The Leaden Echo. DeBoor Canfield. David. Fanfare Magazine. 2019-03-18.
  15. Web site: Roman Mints, violinist. Davis. Elizabeth. 22 July 2011. BBC Music Magazine. 2019-03-18.
  16. Web site: Roman Mints plays Langer, Mozetich and Schnittke. May 2007. BBC Music Magazine. en. 2019-03-18.
  17. Web site: Roman Mints Game Over. Gary. Patrick. www.musicweb-international.com. 2019-03-18.
  18. Web site: Roman Mints - Game Over. 2013-01-09. www.gramophone.co.uk. en. 2019-03-18.
  19. Web site: Roman Mints, Chudinovich. Grahame Woolf. Peter. www.musicweb-international.com. 2019-03-18.

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