Скрипач опоздал на репетицию, но быстро открыл ноты и догнал остальных.

They are all past tense, masculine singular forms.

• опоздал = was late / arrived late
• открыл = opened
• догнал = caught up with

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

Because скрипач is a masculine singular noun, the verbs take the masculine singular past ending:

• masculine: -л
• feminine: -ла
• neuter: -ло
• plural: -ли

So:

• скрипач опоздал
• скрипач открыл
• скрипач догнал

If the subject were feminine, you would get forms like опоздала, открыла, догнала.

This is a question of aspect.

• опоздать = perfective
• опаздывать = imperfective

Here, опоздал is used because the sentence describes a completed fact: the violinist ended up being late for the rehearsal.

Опаздывал would usually suggest an ongoing or repeated situation, for example:

• Он часто опаздывал на репетиции. = He was often late to rehearsals.
• Когда я пришёл, он ещё опаздывал. = less natural in many contexts, because being late is usually treated as a completed result.

In this sentence, the perfective form fits the sequence of finished actions:

1. he was late,
2. he opened the music,
3. he caught up with the others.

Because after опоздать, Russian often uses на + accusative to mean to be late for an event/activity.

So:

• опоздать на репетицию = to be late for rehearsal
• опоздать на урок = to be late for class
• опоздать на поезд = to miss / be late for the train

Here, репетиция is feminine, and its accusative singular form is репетицию.

This use is very common when talking about being late to:

• events
• classes
• meetings
• performances
• transport

They are related, but not exactly the same.

• опоздать на репетицию = to be late for the rehearsal itself
• опоздать к репетиции = to be late by the time the rehearsal starts / to arrive later than the intended time for rehearsal

In many everyday situations, they can feel quite close. But на + accusative is especially common when you mean being late to an event or activity.

So in this sentence, на репетицию is the most natural choice.

Yes, literally ноты means notes, but in Russian it very often means sheet music or the musical score/material in a practical sense.

So:

• нота = a musical note
• ноты = notes / sheet music

In context, открыл ноты means something like:

• opened the sheet music
• opened his music
• got his music open

This is very natural in Russian musical contexts.

Because Russian often omits possessives when the owner is obvious from context.

English often says:

• he opened his sheet music

Russian frequently just says:

• он открыл ноты

since it is already clear that the music is his, or at least the music he is using.

Adding a possessive like свои ноты or его ноты is possible, but it would usually be used only if you want to emphasize ownership or contrast:

• Он открыл свои ноты, а не чужие. = He opened his own music, not someone else’s.

Догнал comes from догнать, which basically means to catch up with or to overtake/reach someone who is ahead.

In this sentence, догнал остальных means that after being late, he managed to catch up with the others.

This can be:

• physically catching up
• catching up in progress
• getting to the same point as the rest of the group

In the context of rehearsal, it most naturally means he quickly got to the point where the others already were.

Остальных comes from остальной, meaning the remaining, the rest, or the others.

Here it is being used like a noun:

• остальные = the others
• догнал остальных = caught up with the others

This is very common in Russian: an adjective can stand on its own when the noun is understood.

For example:

• молодые = the young
• русские = Russians / the Russian people
• остальные = the others / the rest

Because it is animate plural accusative, and for animate plural nouns/adjectives, the accusative looks like the genitive.

So although остальных is the direct object of догнал, it takes the form that matches animate plural accusative.

Compare:

• Я вижу столы. = I see tables.

  • inanimate plural accusative = nominative plural

• Я вижу студентов. = I see students.

  • animate plural accusative = genitive plural

Here, остальные refers to people, so it is animate:

• nominative: остальные
• accusative animate plural: остальных

That is why the sentence has догнал остальных.

Because Russian, like English, does not need to repeat the subject when it is the same for a series of verbs.

So this structure is perfectly normal:

• Скрипач опоздал..., но быстро открыл ноты и догнал остальных.

The subject скрипач applies to all three verbs:

• he was late
• he opened the music
• he caught up with the others

Repeating скрипач each time would sound unnecessary and heavy.

Russian word order is fairly flexible, and adverbs like быстро can often move around.

Here, но быстро открыл ноты is natural and neutral: it emphasizes that he quickly opened the music after arriving late.

You could also hear:

• но открыл ноты быстро
• но он быстро открыл ноты

But the original word order is very standard.

In general, Russian often uses word order to manage focus and rhythm, not just grammar.

Because но is a coordinating conjunction meaning but, and in Russian it normally takes a comma before it when it joins two clauses.

So:

• Скрипач опоздал на репетицию, но быстро открыл ноты и догнал остальных.

The comma separates:

1. Скрипач опоздал на репетицию
2. но быстро открыл ноты и догнал остальных

This is standard Russian punctuation.