Introducing the performers…

Roman Simović (violin)
Katerina Nazarova (violin)
Milena Simović (viola)
Tim Hugh (cello)

Roman Simović

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.

Katerina Nazarova

Having learned to play the violin and piano from her mother at a very young age, Australian violinist Katerina Nazarova had an early introduction to the concert platform, making her debut with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as an 11-year-old. (The concert was broadcast nationally on ABC television.) She later travelled to London to study at the Royal College of Music, where she won the college’s concerto competition.

While at the RCM, Katerina made four round trips home to Australia in the space of nine months to progress through the stages of the 2012 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year competition, winning the final round with her reading of Shostakovich’s first violin concerto, performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Verbitsky. She was also awarded the Nelly Apt Scholarship to study in Israel. After graduating from the RCM, Katerina went on to perform regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé and the Philharmonia Orchestra on stages throughout Europe.

Katerina has now played as soloist with all the major Australian orchestras as well as leading several British orchestras including the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and co-leading the English Chamber Orchestra. She played at the wedding in 2018 of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and now has a permanent position as assistant leader with the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Milena Simović

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.

Tim Hugh

Following success at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, London Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Tim Hugh has enjoyed an international career as a soloist as well as ensemble player. Tim has worked and recorded with many of the greatest conductors, including Valery Gergiev; Andre Previn; Bernard Haitink; Sir Colin Davis; Sir Andrew Davis; Mstislav Rostropovich; Yehudi Menuhin; Daniel Harding; François-Xavier Roth; and Yan Pascal Tortelier.

Tim studied at Yale with Aldo Parisot and afterwards with Pleeth and Jaqueline du Pré whilst gaining his MA in Medicine and Anthropology at St John’s College, Cambridge. His developing interest in contemporary music led to performances of Boulez’s Messagesquisse with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the LSO; Dutilleux’s “Tout un Monde Lontain”, the Britten Cello Symphony; and Hugh Wood’s cello concerto – all at the BBC Proms. He has recorded the three Britten Cello Suites twice – for Hyperion and Naxos – the latter a live performance. His other recordings include concertos by Walton, Bliss, Finzi, Boccherini, Hoffman, Holst, and CPE Bach. The Bach Suites released in 2006 on LSO iTunes were praised by BBC Music magazine as “the best performance on a modern cello”. Tim has also recorded the Brahms Double and Beethoven Triple concertos together with Nikolitch and Lars Vogt under the baton of Bernard Haitink, and has lately returned to the Beethoven Triple with Tasmin Little and Howard Shelley. He has also released recordings of the Saygun and Tabakov concertos with the Ankara Symphony Orchestra.

As a chamber musician. Tim plays regularly with the Nash ensemble and has recorded a large part of the piano trio repertoire with the Solomon Trio. Earlier recordings include Gabriel Fauré’s piano quartets as a member of Domus and numerous recital discs, the latest being his album “Hands on Heart” on NAIM Records in memory of his brother Steve, which features a live performance from Wigmore Hall of the Kodály Cello Sonata.

As solo cellist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Tim has performed the Elgar, Shostakovich, Haydn, Dvořák, Messiaen and Walton concertos, and Strauss’s Don Quixote. At the Barbican, he has given recitals with Andre Previn, Helen Grimaud, Nikolai Znaider and Andrew Marriner. Tim has also toured the UK playing the Elgar and Brahms concertos with Moscow Philharmonic, and with the LSO at Alhambra Palace, Granada and Almeria; the Saint-Saëns concerto with Pamplona Symphony; the Tabakov and Saygun concertos in Ankara, Turkey and Rousse Bulgaria. He has given recitals too in Beirut, Dubai, New York and Portugal.

Click here for more information on Tim Hugh.