«Rovshan Mamedkuliev is a true musician. Classical guitar today needs exactly such talented musicians as him – more than just guitarists.»
Roland Dyens (France)
«Fr om the very first moment I heard Rovshan Mamedkuliev, I felt that a truly sensitive and expressive musician had appeared on the guitar scene, giving our instrument one of its most precious gifts: emotion.»
Ernesto Bitetti (Argentina)
Rovshan Mamedkuliev belongs to the leading generation of today’s guitarists. Critics, experts and audiences across the world – from France, Italy, Spain, China, Thailand and Brazil to Russia, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and the United States – are virtually unanimous in their praise. His playing has been described as «incredible, colourful, assured, refined, unforgettable, stunning and brilliant», while he himself has been hailed as «a unique, fiery and dazzling talent», «a poet of the guitar» and «one of the most exciting instrumentalists».
Rovshan Mamedkuliev is laureate of more than twenty‑five international and all‑Russian competitions, including:
- First Prize and Special Prize for the best performance of works by Leo Brouwer at the Tenth International Leo Brouwer Competition (France, 2009);
- First Prize, Audience Prize and Special Prize for the best performance of works by Heitor Villa‑Lobos at the First International Villa‑Lobos Competition (Spain, 2011);
- First Prize at the Second International A. K. Frauchi Competition (Moscow, 2011);
- First Prize, Audience Prize and Special Prize for the best performance of works by Francisco Tárrega at the Forty‑Eighth International Tárrega Competition (Spain, 2014);
- First Prize at the Forty‑Eighth Michele Pittaluga International Guitar Competition (Italy, 2015);
- winner of one of the world’s most prestigious classical guitar competitions – the Thirtieth Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition (USA, 2012).
He tours extensively on major concert stages in Russia and abroad, including the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Moscow International Performing Arts Centre and the Concert Hall of the St Petersburg Academic Capella.
He has performed for audiences in Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Istanbul, Baku, Vilnius, Minsk, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Bangkok and many other cultural centres worldwide.
In 2012 he gave a solo recital at the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York.
In the 2013–2014 season, as part of his Guitar Foundation of America winner’s tour, he presented solo recitals and masterclasses in more than fifty cities across North and South America (the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil).
In 2017 Rovshan Mamedkuliev gave a solo concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
His concert activity is remarkably diverse. He successfully combines solo recitals with appearances with orchestras and chamber ensembles. His wide‑ranging repertoire spans music from the time of Bach to contemporary works, alongside his own transcriptions of pieces originally written for other instruments.
Several collections of his arrangements have been published, including:
- «Masters of Russian Composition: Alexander Borodin and Anatoly Lyadov» (Mel Bay Publications, USA, 2014);
- «Fikret Amirov. 6 Miniatures» (LACG Editions, USA, 2015).
Contemporary composers who have dedicated new works to him include Philippe Lemaigre (Belgium), Nikita Koshkin, Elena Lebedeva and Sergey Rudnev (Russia).
He has recorded two solo albums for the Naxos label (Canada, 2012 and 2016), as well as the discs «Semi‑Awake, Semi‑Dream» (Contrastes Records, Spain, 2015) and «Con Anima» (Soundset Recordings, Russia, 2011).
Rovshan Mamedkuliev was born on 12 May 1986 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and grew up in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. In 2009 he graduated with honours from the Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory named after M. I. Glinka, wh ere he studied classical guitar with Aleksey Alekseyevich Petropavlovsky, Candidate of Art History, laureate of the All‑Russian Competition.
From 2009 to 2014 he taught classical guitar at the Department of Folk Instruments of the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory. Since 2014 he has been Associate Professor at the Maimonides Academy of the A. N. Kosygin Russian State University in Moscow.
Since 2020 he has been Associate Professor at the Department of String Folk Instruments of the Gnesin Academy.
For his outstanding artistic achievements he has received the President of the Russian Federation Prize (2006), as well as scholarships from the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod.
