Roman Mints (born 1976 in
Moscow) is a
Britishviolinist. 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.
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.[1]
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.[5][2][3]
Discography
Desyatnikov: Sketches to Sunset | Russian Seasons (2017). Roman Mints (violin), Yana Ivanilova (soprano), Alexey Goribol (piano), Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Philipp Chizhevsky (conductor). Published by Quartz.[6][7][8][9]
Alfred Schnittke: Works for Violin and Piano | Suite in Old Style (2016). Roman Mints (violin), Katya Apekisheva (piano), Olga Martynova (harpsichord), Andrey Doynikov (percussion), Dmitri Vlassik (percussion). Published by Quartz.[10]
Elena Langer: Landscape With Three People (2016). Anna Dennis, William Towers, Nicholas Daniel, Roman Mints, Meghan Cassidy, Kristina Blaumane, Robert Howarth, Katya Apekisheva. Published by Harmonia Mundi.[11]
Dance of Shadows (2014). Ysaÿe | Piazzolla | Tabakova | Schnittke | Silvestrov. Roman Mints, Violin. Published by Quartz.[12][13]
Dobrinka Tabakova: String Paths (2013). Kristina Blaumane (cello), Maxim Rysanov (viola, conductor), Janine Jansen, Roman Mints, Julia-Maria Kretz (violin), Amihai Grosz (viola), Torleif Thedéen, Boris Andrianov (cello), Raimondas Sviackevičius (accordion), Vaiva Eidukaitytė-Storastienė (harpsichord), Donatas Bagurskas, Stacey Watton (double bass), Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra. Published by ECM New Series.[14]
Leonid Desyatnikov: The Leaden Echo (2011). Roman Mints, Alexei Goribol, William Purefoy, Anton Dressler, Anna Panina, Fedor Lednev, Pavel Stepin, Serj Poltavski, Evgeny Rumyantsev, Petr Kondrashin, Dmitri Sharov, Yuri Kolosov, Kirill Koloskov, Dmitri Vlassik, Asya Sorshneva. Published by Quartz.[5][15]
Exodus (2008). Paul Dunmall (soprano saxophone), Roman Mints (violin). Published by Quartz.
Roman Mints Violin: Mozetich | Langer | Schnittke (2007). Maxim Rysanov (viola), Kristine Blaumane (cello), New Prague Sinfonia, West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra, Mikel Toms (conductor).[16]
Game Over (2011). Works for Violin & Electronics. Roman Mints, violin. Ed Bennett, Taras Buevsky, Alexander Raikhelson, Artem Vassiliev. Published by Quartz.[17][18]
Transformations (1999). 20th Century Works for Violin & Piano. Roman Mints (violin), Elena Chudinovich (piano). Published by Black Box.[19]