“The inner voice of the violoncello and the violin”

Emil Rovner-violoncello

The cellist, singer, and conductor Emil Rovner has established himself as a compelling musician, commanding “flawless technical mastery” (FonoForum) and expressive depth, as well as being a sought-after teacher and festival leader. Born in Gorky, Russia in a family of musicians, by the age of ten he had already given his solo début with the Gorky City Symphony. He continued his studies with Ivan Monighetti in Madrid and Basel and completed them with Boris Pergamenschikow at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. He also received lessons from Mstislav Rostropovich who has had a strong impact on his artistic development. He also studied Singing at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and took lessons in conducting.

Emil Rovner´s most recent projects include solo performances with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Korean Chamber Orchestra in Seoul, Sinfonietta Cracovia, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ankara, a Debut at the Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch as well as concert performances at leading European festivals in Bonn, Gstaad as well as at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, in Copenhagen and Luzern.  A winner of numerous awards, Emil Rovner is the prize-winner at the Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria and at the Lausanne Competition under the patronage of Lord Menuhin. In 1998, he won the First prize and two special awards at the J. S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, marking the onset of his international concert career. Since his solo début with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra he has frequently appeared as a soloist with orchestras of the stature of the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony, the Bern Camerata, the Moscow Symphony, the Basel Symphony, and the renowned chamber orchestras of Stuttgart, Basel and Munich among others. He is co-founder and artistic director of the Resonanzen Festival in St Moritz and the Mieczyslaw Weinberg Festival in Dresden. Emil Rovner is a passionate chamber musician and in 2007 he became one of the youngest professors at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden. His CD release of the solo works by Mieczyslaw Weinberg in 2010 (a première recording) was awarded five stars by the trade journal FonoForum and nominated for the Echo Classic Prize.

Simon Popovski-violin

Born in Bitola, Macedonian violinist Simon Popovski completed his undergraduate studies in 2014 and his master’s degree in 2018 at the Faculty of Music in Skopje. In 2022, he completed further graduate studies in Boca Raton, Florida, USA. During his musical education, he attended masterclasses and seminars with distinguished musicians, including Mei Mei Luo, Vancho Stoilkov, Oleg Kondratenko, Sihana Badivuku, Susan Gilmore, Pavel Vernikov, and others. Popovski has received numerous awards at national and international competitions in violin performance and chamber music. He gained extensive chamber music experience, performing with ensembles such as Con Tempora, with which he has given more than 40 concerts, and the Axios String Quartet, which has performed in both North Macedonia and the United States. He has also collaborated on a wide range of musical projects spanning genres from folk and jazz to contemporary classical music, and has premiered numerous works by both Macedonian and international composers. As an orchestral musician, he has performed with the Macedonian Philharmonic, Palm Beach Opera, Atlantic Symphony, Boca Sifonietta, the National Opera and Ballet of North Macedonia, Miami City Ballet, the Film Scoring Orchestra (F.A.M.E.), NI Chamber Orchestra of Bitola and No Borders Orchestra. Popovski has also appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales Macedonia, the Chamber and Symphony Orchestras of the Faculty of Music in Skopje, the Macedonian Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Bitola, the Symphony and Chamber String Orchestra of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, as well as the orchestra and choir of the First Presbyterian Church in Florida. In addition, he has participated in three ballet productions in Florida featuring adaptations of music by Igor Stravinsky. As a professional musician, he has performed in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Spain, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, China, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Kosovo, Romania, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia. He has appeared at numerous festivals, including the Ohrid Summer Festival, Skopje Summer, KotorArt, Interfest, Autumnal Music Festivities, Days of Macedonian Music, and many others. He is currently a member of the National Institution Chamber Orchestra of Bitola.

Evgeny Shcherbakov-conductor

Canadian composer, conductor and educator Evgeny Shcherbakov was born in 1958 in Gorky (now

Nizhny Novgorod). Showing interest for music at a very young age-he started as a brass band player at nine, he created his first composition, “Minutes”, for piano, which is still performed in Russia, Europe and Canada.

As a composer, Shcherbakov graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod State „Glinka“ Conservatoire earning a Master’s degree in Composition and Music and Theoretical disciplines teaching and completed post-graduate studies and received a Doctor’s degree in Composition and Pedagogics under the direction of Professor Boris Getselev.

As a conductor, studied both orchestral and choral conducting at the Samara Academy of arts and the Nizhny Novgorod “Glinka” State Conservatory where he also went on to hold a tenure as a professor in composition and orchestration in the period between 1990-2008.

In 2008 he immigrated with his family to Canada and continued to tour as composer, conductor and pianist. Over the years, Shcherbakov has composed numerous works ranging from children’s music and chamber music to symphonies, instrumental concertos, cantatas and oratories. Many of these have been repeatedly performed in, Ukraine, Macedonia, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium and Canada. Further, Shcherbakov has held master classes in composition as well as composition/orchestration seminars and workshops in Switzerland, Macedonia and Germany.

He was awarded international residences and grants in Switzerland and in Canada as support to pursue his creative skills in music. Since 2008 he is an independent professor consultant on Composition & Orchestration and Opera & Symphony Conducting, simultaneously working at the Vancouver Waldorf School as High School Choir Director (2008 – 2017), Professor of music department and pianist,  while also working as choir director at the Old Barn Community Centre Choir and the Vancouver Waldorf Community Choir.