“Rovshan Mamedkuliev is a real musician. Classical guitar today needs more musicians, not just guitarists.” Roland Dyens (France)
“In 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 appreciated gifts: emotion.”
Ernesto Bitetti (Argentina-Spain)
Rovshan Mamedkuliev has won more than 25 awards at national and international guitar competitions. His major prizes include: First Prize and Special Prize for the best interpretation of works by Leo Brouwer at the 10th International Guitar Competition Hommage à Leo Brouwer (Antony, France, 2009); First Prize, Audience Prize and Special Prize for the best interpretation of works by Heitor Villa-Lobos at the 1st International Guitar Competition Heitor Villa-Lobos (Salamanca, Spain, 2011); First Prize at the 2nd International Guitar Competition named after A. Frauchi (Moscow, Russia, 2011); First Prize, Audience Prize and Special Prize for the best interpretation of works by Francisco Tárrega at the 48th International Guitar Competition Francisco Tárrega (Benicasim, Spain, 2014); and First Prize at the 48th International Guitar Competition Michele Pittaluga (Alessandria, Italy, 2015). In 2012, Rovshan won one of the most prestigious guitar competitions in the world - the XXX Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition (Charleston, SC, USA).
Rovshan Mamedkuliev has performed throughout the world. His solo career has taken him to numerous cities, including Moscow, Los Angeles, Toronto, Brasilia, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam, Berlin, Zagreb, Belgrade, Istanbul, Vilnius, Sarajevo, Chisinau, Baku, Minsk, Seoul, Beijing and Bangkok, among others. In 2012, he gave a solo concert at Carnegie Hall in New York and performed in numerous cities across Germany and Spain. During the 2013-2014 concert season, after winning the GFA International Concert Artist Competition, Rovshan gave a solo concert tour of 51 concerts and masterclasses across the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. In 2017, he gave a solo concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
As a soloist, Rovshan has performed with a wide range of ensembles and orchestras, including l'Ensemble orchestral de Valencia (Spain), the Orchestre du Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (France), the Azerbaijani State Chamber Orchestra named after Gara Garayev, the Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, and the State Symphony Orchestra of the Udmurt Republic.
A couple of years later, Rovshan and his family moved to Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, where he began taking guitar lessons at the age of 11. From a very early age, he showed exceptional musical talent. In 2004 he was accepted to the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatoire, where he studied with the nationally recognized guitarist Aleksey Petropavlovsky. Throughout his studies, professors described Rovshan as having 'an excellent ear, a 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. In 2014, Rovshan Mamedkuliev undertook his role as associate professor of the classical guitar department at the Maimonides State Classical Academy in Moscow. Since 2023, he has been a professor at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow.
Rovshan has premiered many new works for classical guitar, including Concerto No. 3 Antony for guitar and symphony orchestra by Philippe Lemaigre (Antony, France, 2012) and Concerto Famalicao by Elena Lebedeva for guitar and chamber orchestra (Kostroma, Russia, 2008).
Rovshan Mamedkuliev also performs his own arrangements. He released an arrangement of music by Russian composers, Masters of Russian Composition: Alexander Borodin and Anatoly Lyadov (Mel Bay Publications, USA, 2014), as well as an arrangement of music by the Azerbaijani composer from his native country, Fikret Amirov: 6 Miniatures (LACG Editions, USA, 2015).
A number of Rovshan's performances have been released on CD: his first professional CD, Con Anima (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2011); a Guitar Recital CD in the Laureate Series on the prestigious Naxos label (Toronto, Canada, 2012); and the solo CD Semi-Awake, Semi-Dream on Contrastes Records (Seville, Spain, 2015). In January 2016, Rovshan Mamedkuliev recorded his second CD for Naxos in Toronto, Canada.