Emil Rovner was born in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod), Russia, into a family of musicians. At the age of 10, he made his debut with the Gorky Philharmonic Orchestra. At the age of 16, he went to Madrid to study under the direction of Ivan Monighetti (from 1991 to 1994), with a scholarship from Iberdrola. He then continued his studies with Ivan Monighetti in Basel and with Boris Pergamenschikow in Berlin (Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler). He also took classes with Mstislav Rostropovich and studied singing and orchestral conducting.
In 1998, he won first prize at the Bach Competition (Leipzig), a fact that marked the beginning of his international career.
He has recently performed concerts with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Sinfonietta of Cracovia, the Korean Chamber Orchestra, as well as the premiere of a piece by Gubaidulina (Shostakovich Festival) and recitals in Prades (Pablo Casals Festival), Lucerne (KKL) and Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie). He has worked with composers such as Gubaidulina, Silvestrov and Holliger and with conductors such as Ashkenazy, Bertini, Fedoseyev, Shambadal, etc. His debut as a concert performer took place with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. Since then, he has played with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony, as well as the orchestras of Stuttgart, Basel, Munich, etc. Since 2007, he has been a professor of cello at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden.