Roman Spitzer was born in 1969 in St. Petersburg, Russia, where commenced his violin studies at age of 6 with Prof. S. Zabejinsky, continued in Rimsky Korsakov Music College in class of Prof. V. Mazel. During that time he won a several prestigious prizes, played as a soloist with school and college orchestras in St. Petersburg and abroad.

After emigration to Israel in 1990 he continued his studies as a violist at Tel Aviv Academy of Music in class of G. Lewertoff and was soon invited to be a Principal Violist of the Tel Aviv Symphony Orchestra, playing at the same time in a New Tel Aviv String Quartet. This quartet won several prizes in different competitions and also participated in International Quartet Festival in Tel Aviv. 

Since 2000 Roman Spitzer is the Principal Violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Principal Violist of Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra since 2016.

Roman had appeared as a soloist (Musikverein, Wien; Gewandhaus, Leipzig; Costa Rica with National Symphony, Israel Philharmonic under button of Zubin Mehta and Ilan Volkov, was teaching in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Music Academies, nowdays in Rotterdam Academy of music Codarts, gives master classes for viola and chamber music in Israel and abroad, participated in festivals such as Verbie (Switzerland), Menuhin Festival Gstaad (Switzerland), Mendelsohn Festival Wengen (Switzerland, Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker (Germany) and others.

Roman Spitzer plays chamber music in Israel and abroad, with musicians such as Efim Bronfman, Sol Gabetta, Natalia Gutman, Steven Isserlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Konstantin Lifshitz, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Gil Shaham, Peter Wispelwey and leading IPO and RPHO members.

As a principal violist of IPO, he worked with conductors such as H. Blomstedt, R.F. de Burgos, G. Dudamel, V. Gergiev, L. Maasel, K. Masur, K. Nagano, A. Pappano, D. Robertson, W. Sawallisch, D. Barenboim, G. Sinopolli, Y. Temirkanov and many others.