Praised by The New York Times for his ‘uncommon sensitivity and feeling’, the eloquent pianist Roman Rabinovich was the winner of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2008. His subsequent career has led him to perform throughout Europe and the USA in venues as Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Washington DC’s Kennedy Center.
Roman Rabinovich has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Meininger Hofkapelle, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, NFM Leopoldinum, KBS Symphony, Prague Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic and all the major Israeli orchestras, and has collaborated with conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Zubin Mehta, Ludovic Morlot, Kristjan Järvi, Michael Stern, Christoph Koenig, Gerard Schwarz and Joseph Swensen. He has garnered critical acclaim for performances of concertos of all periods, ranging from Bach to Lutoslawski.
Dubbed ‘a true polymath, in the Renaissance sense of the word’ (Seen & Heard International), Rabinovich is also a composer and visual artist with a repertoire spanning six centuries, from Byrd to Boulez and beyond. He has won critical acclaim for interpretations of the music of Haydn; he has performed Haydn Sonata cycles at the Lammermuir and Bath Festivals in UK and at ChamberFest Cleveland in the US; he has also appeared at the Herbstgold Festival in Eisenstadt, and curated a three-concert Haydn Day at Wigmore Hall in 2022. He has also released two albums of Haydn Sonatas on First Hand Records to great critical acclaim, with BBC Music Magazine noting ‘the elegance and liveliness of Rabinovich’s keyboard style are, indeed, a joy to listen to, and his unfailing musicality and inventiveness allows him to penetrate to the expressive heart of Haydn’s world.’
Highlights of the 2024-25 season include returns to Wigmore Hall for a series of three recitals, as well as to the Lammermuir Festival in Scotland and the Liszt Academy Chamber Music Festival in Budapest, and his concerto debut with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Roman Rabinovich also returns to Israel for a recital tour and concerto performances with the Haifa Symphony. The 2024-25 season also has a particular focus on JS Bach’s Golberg Variations, with a number of performances scheduled, including in London (Wigmore Hall) and Vienna (Bösendorfer-Zyklus), to coincide with a planned recording release in May 2025.
Roman Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic debut under Zubin Mehta aged 10, having immigrated to Israel a year before from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Seymour Lipkin, he went on to earn his masters- degree at the Juilliard School where he studied with Robert McDonald. He was among the first of three young pianists to be championed by Sir András Schiff for his ‘Building Bridges’ series. Together with his wife, violinist Diana Cohen, he is co-director of the ChamberFest Cleveland and ChamberFest West (Calgary) Festivals