Roman Kofman
Roman Kofman (15 June 1936 – 25 February 2026) was a Ukrainian conductor, composer, poet, and writer. He was named an Honored Artist of Ukraine in 1994 and a People's Artist of Ukraine in 2003.
He studied in Novosibirsk with Iosif Gutman and at the Gorky Conservatory with Witold Portugalov. Kofman graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory as a violinist in 1961 and became concertmaster of the Kyiv Chamber Orchestra in 1963. He subsequently completed a second course of study in conducting under Mykhailo Kanerstein, graduating in 1971.
From 1978, Kofman was a professor at the National Music Academy of Ukraine and directed its student orchestra. He became head of the Kyiv Chamber Orchestra in 1990. From 2003 to 2008, he served in Germany as General Music Director of Bonn, leading the Beethoven Orchestra and the Bonn Opera. With the orchestra he recorded Liszt's oratorio Christus, which received an Echo Klassik award, and all of Shostakovich's symphonies. At the Bonn Opera he conducted ten operas, including Mussorgsky's The Fair at Sorochyntsi, and received the Grand Cross First Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his work there.
While continuing his work with Ukrainian orchestras, Kofman presented Kyiv cycles of all Beethoven symphonies in the 2006–07 season and all Franz Schubert symphonies in the 2008–09 season, alongside works by newer generations of Ukrainian composers. In 2011 he received the Order of Merit, Third Class. From 2012, he was chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine.
Kofman wrote books including Nuances: Poetry, Prose, Drama (1993), The Face of the Earth (1996), The Book of Nonexistence (2004), Training a Conductor: Psychological Features (2009), and 100 Unnecessary Pieces of Advice for Young Conductors (2012). His musical works included the song cycle The Seven-Colored Land, to poems by Ovsey Driz, and music for the films Only Three Weeks... (1971) and Laurels (1972, co-written).
He died in Kyiv on 25 February 2026, aged 89.