Age: 38
Occupation: Classical Musician and Co-Artistic Director, ChamberFest West
Raised by piano-teacher parents with an extensive record collection, Roman Rabinovich grew up immersed in the world of music, and embraced it wholeheartedly.
His family immigrated from Uzbekistan to Israel in 1994, and he made his Israel Philharmonic debut as a pianist at age 10. Rabinovitch went on to earn a master’s in music from Julliard, has performed and created with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Prague Symphony, and performed with our own Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra; he also won the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2008. His creative talents go beyond music: his visual art has been showcased in Jerusalem, Philadelphia and New York City.
After years of splitting time between Alberta and New York, Rabinovich put down roots in Calgary in 2020 (his wife is Calgary Phil’s concertmaster, Diana Cohen) — just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic to silence performance venues. But the couple simply turned their Crescent Heights lawn into a stage, with Rabinovich performing Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” for an audience of more than 150 Calgarians. The outdoor concerts continued weekly for eight months. “It was a way to share music at the most vital points,” Rabinovich remembers.
Those shows would become the basis of a festival, ChamberFest West, which kicked off with a “Big Bang” theme in 2022 and has since become a summer staple for music aficionados. Each year, 25 musicians from around the world perform chamber music at various venues in Calgary. The festival starts with a free outdoor community concert that anyone can enjoy and offers significant discounts to main-stage concerts for those in need.
Demystifying classical music and making it accessible is at the heart of the ChamberFest West. “Classical music is not just for the elites,” says Rabinovich. “It’s a basic necessity of our souls.”
Thank yous
“My wife, Diana Cohen.”
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