Roman Matsov was an Estonian conductor and music teacher. He was born on 27 April 1917 in Petrograd, now St. Petersburg, and died on 24 August 2001 in Tallinn. He was named People's Artist of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1967.
Matsov began studying music in Petrograd with Maria Barinova for piano and Viktor Zavetnovsky for violin. In 1929 he repatriated to Estonia, attended the German secondary school in Tallinn, and studied philosophy at the University of Tartu in 1937–1938. He then entered the Tallinn Conservatory, graduating in 1940 after studying piano with Theodor Lemba and violin with Johannes Paulsen; he also studied composition with Artur Kapp. From 1938 to 1940, he played violin in the Estonian Radio Symphony Orchestra. For his graduation examination, he performed Tchaikovsky's piano and violin concertos.
He continued his training in Berlin with violinist Georg Kulenkampff and pianist Walter Gieseking, and at the Leningrad Conservatory with pianist Samary Savshinsky and violinist Hovhannes Nalbandyan. A severe injury ended his career as a performer.
In 1943, Matsov made his conducting debut with the symphony orchestra of the State Artistic Ensemble of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, then evacuated to Yaroslavl. He became a conductor of the Estonian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra in 1944 and served as its chief conductor from 1950 to 1963. The orchestra was renamed the State Symphony Orchestra of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1975. From 1944 he also taught at the Tallinn Conservatory, where he became a professor in 1977.
His distinctions included second prize at the 1946 All-Union Conductors' Competition, the title of Merited Artist of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954, and the Order of the White Star, third class, in 2001.