Roman Mints was born in 1976 in Moscow and began playing the violin at the age of five. In 1994 Roman won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, and also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning prizes at each. His teachers were L. Svetlova, N. Fikhtengoltz and F. Andrievsky. Roman Mints has given Russian premieres of works by Desyatnikov, Golijov, Tavener, MacMillan, Scelsi and Mozetich and has also given world premieres of over fifty works by Tabakova, Desyatnikov, Bennett, Finnissy, Irvine, Langer, Vassiliev, Burrell, Miyachi, Duddell, and others.
In 1998 Roman Mints and oboist Dmitry Bulgakov founded the Homecoming Chamber Music Festival in Moscow, which has gained widespread recognition and a substantial following in Russia. 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 has authored more than forty such programmes.
In April 2002, Roman co-directed the Suppressed Music project in Russia, which comprised 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.
Roman has recorded for ECM, Black Box, Quartz, and other labels, and his albums feature a number of world-premiere recordings. An album of works by Dobrinka Tabakova for ECM was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Compendium.
Roman has collaborated with conductors Andrew Davis, Saulius Sondeckis, Vladimir Ziva, Vladimir Ponkin; violinists Gidon Kremer, Alina Ibragimova, Boris Brovtsyn, Alexander Sitkovetsky; flautist Sharon Bezaly, oboists Dmitri Bulgakov and Nicholas Daniel; pianists Katya Apekisheva, Alexander Kobrin, Charles Owen, José Gallardo, Vadym Kholodenko; cellists Boris Andrianov, Alexander Buzlov and Tatiana Vassilieva; violists Maxim Rysanov and Nils Mönkemeyer; singers Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, William Purefoy, Anna Dennis and others. Roman has performed with such prominent groups as London Mozart Players, London Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Musica Viva Orchestra, Russian Philharmonia, Kremerata Baltica, Prague Soloists and Prague Sinfonia, among others.In Summer 2008, after an invitation from Gidon Kremer, Roman led the Grammy-winning Kremerata Baltica Orchestra for performances in the Sigulda and Lockenhaus Festivals.
Outside the classical field, Roman has worked with free-improvising saxophonist Paul Dunmall, 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 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 Mozetich Violin Concerto ‘Affairs of the Heart’ was used in productions by Hong Kong Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Q-dance company.
Roman’s latest cd of solo works for violin by Ysaye, Schnittke, Piazzolla and Silvestrov uses innovative recording and editing approach to interpreting these works and will be released in 2014. The album also includes a world premiere recording of Spinning a Yarn for violin and kolesnaya lira (Russian hurdy-gurdy) by Dobrinka Tabakova. Roman recorded both parts using multi-tracking. The latest album featuring works by Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov was received very warmly by the press, including five star review from BBC Music Magazine. In August 2017 Roman gave a UK premiere of Faradzh Karayev’s chamber orchestra arrangement of Berg’s Violin Concerto.
In 2022 Roman joined the faculty of Royal Birmingham Conservatory of Music, UK.