Roman Simovic (leader LSO), Milena Simovic & Tim Hugh (principal cellist LSO)

25 Mountjoy Square, Sunday 22nd October 2017 4.30pm

Mozart Divertimento in E flat, K.563
Beethoven Trio in C minor
Dohnanyi Serenade in C, Op. 10

ROMAN SIMOVIC

Roman Simovic’s brilliant virtuosity and seemingly-inborn musicality, fueled by a limitless imagination, has taken him throughout all continents performing on many of world’s leading stages including the Bolshoi Hall of the Tchaikovsky conservatory, Mariinsky hall in St. Petersburg, Grand Opera House in Tel-Aviv, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Rudolfinum Hall in Prague, Art Centre in Seoul, Grieg Hall in Bergen, Rachmaninov Hall in Moscow and in the Barbican Hall in London where he is currently leader of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Roman Simovic has been awarded prizes at numerous international competitions among which are ‘Premio Rodolfo Lipizer'(Italy), Sion-Valais (Switzerland), Yampolsky Violin Competition (Russia) and the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition (Poland), placing him among the foremost violinists of his generation. As soloist, Simovic has appeared with the world leading orchestras: London Symphony orchestra, Mariinsky theatre symphony orchestra, Teatro Regio Torino, Symphony Nova Scotia (Canada), Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Hungary), Camerata Bern (Switzerland), Camerata Salzburg (Austria), CRR Chamber Orchestra (Turkey), Poznan Philharmonia, Prague Philharmonia,
North Brabant (Holland).

A sought-after artist, Roman Simovic has been invited and continues to perform at various distinguished festivals such as the ‘Verbier Festival’, ‘White Nights’ Festival St. Petersburg, Easter Festival Valery Gergiev Moscow, Dubrovnik Summer Festival in Croatia, ‘Kotor Art’ Montenegro, the BEMUS and NOMUS Festivals in Serbia, ‘Sion Valais’ Switzerland, Norway’s Bergen Festival, ‘Moscow Winter’ Festival in Russia, Portogruaro Festival in Italy, ‘Granada music festival’ in Spain, collaborating with renowned artists including Leonidas Kavakos, Evgeny Kissin,Yuja Wang, Gautie Capuson, Antoine Tamestit, Misha Maisky, Schlomo Mintz, Francois Leleux, Itamar Golan, Simon Trpceski, Janine Jansen and Julian Rachlin.
As an educator, he has presenter master-classes in the US, UK, South Korea, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, Italy. Roman Simovic plays a 1709 Antonio Stradivari violin which was generously given to him on loan from Jonathan Moulds, Bank of America’s president. In the 17/18 season Roman Simovis is relising the cd with Tchaikovsky and Glazunov concertos with Gergiev and Mariinsky orchestra for the Mariinsky label.

Milena Simovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia.
She achieved several significant appearances in Austria, Sweden, Italy, USA, Brazil,
Israel and Great Britain where she was praised as “unique talent with wonderful
musicality”. She has performed in many important venues in Belgrade and throughout Serbia and Montenegro. She is regular participant in the most important festivals in Europe, such as “BEMUS” , “NOMUS”, “BELEF” (Serbia), as well as “Kotor Art” and “Budva City- Theatre” in Montenegro, Musical Evenings in St Donatus in Croatia, “Campos do
Jordao” in the state of Sao Paulo and festival of Ouro Preto in Brazil, Fondazione musicale ‘Santa Cecilia’ in Portogruaro, Italy, Keshet Eilon in Israel, and Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland where she also performed with festival chamber orchestras.

Milena is resident viola and chamber music coach at the Culture Festival in Sardinia, teaching and performing alongside Ivry Gitlis, Konstantin Lifshitz, Itamar Golan, Olga Sitkovetsky, Gordan Nikolitch, Roman Simovic, Giovanni Gnocchi, Alexander Zemtsov
among others.

Milena is “Keshet Eilon” alumna, where she worked with renowned musicians such as Shlomo Mintz, Vadim Gluzman, Ani Schnarch, Haim Taub, Ida Haendel and Hagai Shaham, performing at the final concerts in Opera House in Tel Aviv. In June 2009 Milena completed Bachelor and Master Degree at Belgrade University- Faculty of Music and Arts, under Professor Maja Jokanovic, with whom she continues to study as a Phd student.
In 2011 Milena pursued Master of Music Degree at Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Distinction where she was a violin student of Professor Krzysztof Smietana. At Guildhall Milena has received coaching from Belcea Quartet and has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel and James Gaffigan. Milena has furthermore pursued her studies with Lawrence power as viola player at the Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK.

Milena recorded several music programs for radio and television in many countries
across Europe and South America.

Milena is grateful for generous support of Albert Cooper Music Charitable Trust, Leverhulme Trust and Leathersellers’ Company throughout her master studies in London. She is also a recipient of a scholarship by Rotary Club “Skadarlija” in Belgrade and Young Talent Award given by the Government of Serbia.

Milena is currently playing on a Paolo Antonio Testore viola.

TIM HUGH BIOGRAPHY 
Tim  studied with Aldo Parisot at Yale and then in London with Jaqueline Du Pre whilst reading Medicine at Cambridge University. Following his success at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he has enjoyed an international career as soloist alongside his position as Principal Cellist with the LSO.

He has worked as soloist with many of the great conductors including Previn, Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Rostropovich, Menuhin, Harding, Xavier-Roth, Myung-Whun Chung and Tortelier. His recordings of Brahms Double and Beethoven Triple with the LSO and Haitink together with Nikolitch and Lars Vogt are released by LSO Live.  He also recorded Beethoven triple with Howard Shelley and Tasmin Little and in 2014 performed it with Leonidas Kavakos and Enrico Pace with the LSO.

His interest in contemporary music led to performances of Boulez’ Messagesquisse with BBC symphony and LSO, Dutilleux “ Tout un Monde Lontain”, Britten Cello Symphony , Hugh Wood concerto, all at the Albert Hall Proms. For Naxos he recorded the 3 Britten suites from a live performance and other recordings include Walton, Bliss, Finzi, Boccherini, Hoffman, Holst, and CPE Bach concertos. The Bach Suites  were reviewed by BBC music magazine as “the best performance on a modern cello” – available from LSO Live iTunes and his solo disc “Hands on Heart” in memory of his brother Steve featuring a live performance of Kodaly solo sonata on NAIM records.

As solo cellist with the LSO he has performed Elgar, Strass Don Quixote, Shostakovich, Tischenko, Dutilleux, Haydn, Dvorak, Messiaen and Walton concertos and at the Barbican gave recitals with Andre Previn, Helen Grimaud, Nikolai Znaider, Viktoria Mullova and Andrew Marriner. In recent years he toured the UK playing Elgar and Brahms an Shostakovich concertos with Moscow Philharmonic and in Spain with LSO at Alhambra Palace. He performed Saint-Saëns concerto with Pamplona Symphony and also recorded and performed the Tabakov and Saygun concertos in Ankara , Turkey and Rousse Bulgaria as well as giving recitals in Beirut, Dubai , New York and Portugal.

With Maestro Valery Gergiev he gave the UK premiere of the Tischenko Cello concerto with the LSO at the Barbican and also premiered it with him at the Berlin Philharmonie and the Rotterdam Festival. In Nürnberg he opened the season playing the Walton concerto with their Principal Conductor Alexander Shelley and recently performed the  Elgar concerto  in Frankfurt, Brandenburg and India.