Rovshan Mamedkuliev was born in Baku, Azerbaijan and soon after his family moved to Nizhny Novgorod (Russia). He started taking guitar lessons at age eleven. From a very early age he showed an exceptional musical talent. In 2004 he was accepted to the prestigious Nizhny Novgorod Conservatoire where he studied with nationally recognized guitarist Aleksey Petropavlovsky. Throughout his study professors described Rovshan as having “an excellent ear, tenacious memory, a developed sense of rhythm and form and bright artistry." He completed his studies with honors in 2009 and was invited to teach at the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatoire. 

 

Since 1999 Rovshan has won more than 20 awards in national and international guitar competitions, including: First Prize at the 6th International Competition "Cup of the North" (Cherepovets, Russia, 2006), First Prize and Special Prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Leo Brouwer at the 10th International Guitar Competition “Hommage à Leo Brouwer” (Antony, France, 2009), First Prize, Prize of Public, and Special Prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Heitor Villa-Lobos at the

1st International Guitar Competition “Heitor Villa-Lobos” (Salamanca, Spain, 2011), First Prize at the 2nd International Guitar Competition "A. Frauchi" (Moscow, Russia, 2011), First Prize, Prize of Public, and Special prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Francisco Tárrega at the 41st International Guitar Competition “Francisco Tárrega” (Benicassim, Spain, 2014). In 2012 Rovshan won one of the most prestigious guitar competitions in the world: the 30th Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition (Charleston, SC, USA).

 

Rovshan's solo career has given him the opportunity to perform around the world.  In 2012, he gave a solo concert in New York's Carnegie Hall and performed in numerous cities throughout Germany and Spain. In the 2013-2014 concert season he gave a solo concert tour (51 concerts) and master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. He has performed with a wide variety of ensembles and orchestras including: L’Ensemble Orchestral de Valencia (Spain), Orchestre du Conservatoire National de Musique Superior de Paris (France), Azerbaijani State Chamber Orchestra named after Kara Karaev, Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra, and the State Symphony Orchestra of the Udmurt Republic. Rovshan has premiered many new works for classical guitar, including Concerto No. 3 "Antony" for guitar and symphonic orchestra by Philippe Lemaigre (Antony, France, 2012) and Concerto "Famalicao" by Elena Lebedeva for guitar and chamber orchestra (Kostroma, Russia, 2008).

 

Rovshan often performs his own guitar arrangements. He has published a compilation of arrangements of music by Russian composers, (Masters of Russian Composition: Alexander Borodin and Anatoly Lyadov, Mel Bay Publications, USA, 2014) as well as a compilation of arrangements of Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov (6 Miniatures, LACG Editions, USA, 2015).  A number of these works have been recorded by Rovshan on the following albums: Con Anima (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2011), two Guitar Recital CDs as part of the Laureate Series on the prestigious Naxos label (2013, 2016), and a solo CD, Semi-Awake, Semi-Dream, on the Contrastes Records (Sevilla, Spain, 2015).

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Rovshan Mamedkuliev has been professor of classical guitar at the Maimonides State Classical Academy (Moscow) since 2014.