Roman Simović (violin) and Milena Simović (viola)

Introducing the performers…

Roman Simović (violin)

Roman Simović began his music education in Lviv, Ukraine. After continuing studies with his father, conductor Igor Simović, he attended the Cetinje Music Academy, the Academy of Music and Arts in Novi Sad (Serbia), and, later, the Moscow State Conservatorium, where he gained his Master’s degree. Having previously been Leader of Camerata Salzburg, he was appointed Leader of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2010.

Roman has appeared at many top music venues, including the Bolshoi Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory; the Mariinsky Hall in St Petersburg; the Grand Opera House in Tel Aviv; the Victoria Hall in Geneva; the Rudolfinum Hall in Prague; the Barbican Hall in London; the Art Centre in Seoul, the Grieg Hall in Bergen; and the Rachmaninov Hall in Moscow. He has been awarded prizes at numerous international competitions, among them Italy’s Premio Rodolfo Lipizer; the Sion-Valais in Switzerland; the Yampolsky Violin Competition in Russia; and the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poland.

As a soloist, Roman has appeared with some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra; the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, the Teatro Regio Torino; Symphony Nova Scotia; the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra; Camerata Bern; Camerata Salzburg; Turkey’s CRR Chamber Orchestra; Poznan Philharmonia; and the Prague Philharmonia. He has worked with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Antonio Pappano, Daniel Harding, Gianandrea Noseda, Kristian Jarvi, Jiri Belohlavek, Pablo Heras Casado and Nikolai Znaider.

Roman is a regular performer at various international festivals such as the Verbier Festival; the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg; Valery Gergiev’s Easter Festival Moscow; the Dubrovnik Summer Festival; Kotor Art Montenegro; the BEMUS and NOMUS Festivals in Serbia; Sion Valais in Switzerland; the Bergen Festival; the Moscow Winter Festival; Italy’s Portogruaro Festival; and the Granada Music Festival. He has collaborated with such renowned artists as Leonidas Kavakos; Yuja Wang; Gautie Capuson; Tabea Zimermann; Misha Maisky; Schlomo Mintz; Francois Leleux; Itamar Golan; Simon Trpceski; Janine Jansen; and Julian Rachli.

Besides his solo work, Roman is an avid chamber musician and is a founding member of the Rubikon String Quartet. As an educator, he has presented master classes in the US, UK, South Korea, Serbia, Montenegro and Israel.

Milena Simović (viola)

Serbian-born Milena Simović studied violin with Professor Maya Jokanović at Belgrade University of Arts and Music, where she attained her Bachelor’s degree. She went on to gain a Master of Music degree with Distinction at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London as a student of Professor Krzysztof Smietana; a further Master’s degree at the Zurich University of Arts under Lawrence Power; and her Phd, again with Maya Jokanović in Belgrade.

Equally at home as a violinist and violist, Milena now enjoys an illustrious international career of concerto, recital and chamber music performances. She recorded with Nigel Kennedy between 2015 and 2017, and worked as principal viola of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2017.

Acclaimed for her work in Europe, Asia and America, Milena regularly performs as a soloist in Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway, France, Portugal, and throughout the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Her distinguished chamber music partners have included Ivry Gitlis, Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang, Vadym Kholodenko, Konstantin Lifschitz, Boris Andrianov, Itamar Golan, Julian Rachlin, Roman Simović, Gordan Nikolitch, Tim Hugh, Olga Sitkovetsky, Vadim Kholodenko, Alena Baeva, and many others.

In May 2018 Milena premiered Berlioz’s Harold in Italy in Belgrade with the Serbian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a concert that was broadcast live across the country. She was praised by the press for her “…exceptionally delivered performance, charged with a brilliant combination of operatic quality and diversity, which was jaw-dropping at times” and for playing that was “seductive and exciting… with rare artistic sensibility”.

Milena is a resident viola and a chamber music coach at the Santu Lussurgiu Culture Festival in Sardinia, which takes place in August each year, attracting diverse students from every continent. She plays a Giovanni Battista Rogeri violin form circa 1680, and a Paolo Antonio Testore viola from 1740.