Roman Alexander Ohem is a culture and media manager based in Hamburg/Germany. His career led to work all around the world, in the recent past to Shanghai (China), San Francisco (USA), Istanbul (Turkiye) or Lviv (Ukraine). In Germany his work is focused on organizing concerts and managing cultural productions.
He organized concerts in halls like the Elbphilharmonie, Berlin Philharmonic, Glocke Bremen or Gewandhaus Leipzig.
Roman was born in 1993 in Frankfurt (Oder) into a German-Polish family. At the age of six, he began his violin training at the Municipal Music School and was a scholarship recipient of the Anima support association. In 2005, he continued his studies with Klaudyna Schulze-Broniewska, the first concertmaster of the Brandenburg State Orchestra. In 2014, he completed his music school education at the state level with distinction.
From 2013, he received lessons from Lothar Strauß, the first concertmaster of the Staatskapelle Berlin. Roman was the concertmaster of the German-Polish Youth Orchestra for many years and was twice invited to Berlin by President Joachim Gauck. During this time, he frequently performed as a soloist, including a TV recording with rbb state television.
He is the recipient of numerous national and international competition awards, particularly with his DUO FRANCOFORTE (violin/guitar), which has been active for over 20 years. His solo debut with a professional orchestra took place in September 2014 under the direction of Sir Howard Griffiths, where he performed Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor with the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt (Oder).
Starting in 2014, he studied with Prof. Katrin Scholz in Bremen, dedicating himself especially to chamber music. This led to numerous concert tours, masterclasses, and festival appearances in Germany, France, Spain, Poland, and Turkey.
In his second year of studies he started organizing concerts targeting migrant communities. This led to the founding of the initiative CULTURE CONNECTS. After the first concerts in 2016, that was the “Polish Evening” telling the history of Poland through music, his format was invited to Theater Bremen and only one year later to the famous Glocke Bremen.
During the Syrian refugee crisis in Germany he organized with Culture Connects educational concerts for children in Bremen and Hamburg, showing music and artists from around the world.
The Polish concert series was expanded to Hannover, Hamburg, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Berlin. in 2022 he received the award from the “TERAZ POLSKA” foundation in the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf, for his contributions to Polish culture in Germany.
Subsequently he was appointed the organizational director of the 2017 edition of the Piano Competition “Theodor Leschetizky” in Hamburg. This was the first of many managerial jobs to come. Examples are the creator and manager of the “Bremen Town Musicians” festival in Bremen for the 200th birthday of the icons of the city, production manager of “Kanon in V” at Theater Bremen or as production manager of a short film “You belong to me” that went on to be included on the long list for the 2023 Academy Awards. In 2024 he worked for the campaign “GoVote” for the European elections in Hamburg and in the Filmfest Hamburg. Starting in 2024, Roman was awarded the scholarship “Geh deinen Weg” of the foundation Deutschlandstiftung Integration under the patronage of chancellor Olaf Scholz.
His most significant project is the MRIYA Orchestra, founded with Lev Kucher and Kateryna Suprun.
Roman created the education program of MRIYA that supported children with music lessons and instrument donations. In addition he was strongly involved in the humanitarian aid for Ukraine from Bremen. A highlight was the coordination of a fund for Ukrainian music projects created by the GOETHE institute and the Ernst von Siemens music foundation.
He is the manager of the Orchestra in Exile Mriya and the chairman of the non profit organisation Culture Connects in Hamburg, which supports the MRIYA Orchestra since the first beginning.