Soloist of the Romanian National Opera in Iasi, Ana Maria Donose holds a master degree with the G.Enescu Faculty in Iasi. Since 2003, she helds concerts and tours in the country and abroad, with operas and philharmonics from France, Italy, the Nederlands, Timişoara, Bacău, Botoşani, Sibiu, Braşov, Craiova Iaşi, etc.She received numerous awards, among which the 1st Prize at the canto conpetitions in Galati, Ploieşti, Piatra Neamţ (2002-2006), the 3rd Prize at Ploiesti 2006, the Prize for the youngest lied performer competition supported by Mariana Nicolesco (Braşov 2006), the Special Prize at the international contest Piatra Neamţ 2009, the 2nd Prize at the international contest “Bellini” Italy 2010.Her repertoire includes vocal symphonic works (Stabat mater-Pergolessi, Requiem Mozart and Symphony IX by Beethoven), musicals– Elsa (Sound of Music, R. Rodgers,) operettas – Mi (Land of Smiles, Fr. Lehar) and Valanciene (The Merry Widow, Fr. Lehar), opera – Violeta (Traviata, Verdi), Mimi / Musetta (Boema, Puccini), Liu (Turandot, Puccini), Rosina/Bertha (The Barber of Seville, Rossini), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi, Puccini), Micaela (Carmen, Bizet), etc.
Ana Donose collaborates with conducts such as K.M. Chichon (Vienna and Gibraltar,) Eddi de Naddai (Italy), Rinaldo Muratori (Italy), Alfonso Saura (Spain), David Crescenzi (Italy), Petru Oschanitzki, Alexandru Iosub, Gabriel Bebeselea, etc and directors: Andrei Serban, Andras Kurthy, Marina Emandi, etc.
August 16-18, 2013 | Sibiu, Romania
Classics for Pleasure
Artists 2013
Bucharest Symphonic Pops Orchestra is the new brand of the Romanian music stage, having members of the “George Enescu” Philharmonic, National Radio Orchestra and of Big Band Radio. Based on the classic formula for symphony orchestra, the content of this orchestra is expanded to rhythm section and big-band, resulting in a modern, broad sound, with a great flexibility in repertoire.
This makes it possible to address to all types of repertoire – from classical symphonic to jazz, from pop to waltzes and polka – creating an impressive sound atmosphere for all ages.
During its brief history, the BSP orchestra had its chance to be led by renowned conductors such as Ilarion Ionescu Galati, Tiberiu Soare, Ionel Tudor, Cristian Florea.
He performed roles in opera, operetta and musicals in the New York, at The New York Shakespeare Festival, Circle in the Square, Playwrights Horizons, and many other venues.
In 1981, he founded La Gran Scena Opera Co. di New York, the internationally acclaimed travesty troupe, whose gifted falsetto “divas” have spoofed opera with great affection for over two decades, in New York annually, and on tours to some of the great festivals, theatres and opera houses of the world, including Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Edinburgh Festival, the opera houses of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Caracas, Wiesbaden, Berlin, the Munich Festival, Heidelberg Castle Festival, Venice Festival, Wexford Festival Opera and Belfast Festival (Ireland), Covent Garden Festival, Bloomsbury Theatre (London), Barcelona Olympics Festival of the Arts, Madrid’s Autumn Festival, Uruguay’s Hotel Conrad Theatre (performing the show in Castillian in all three), five extensive tours to The Netherlands, and countless others.
For the past thirty years, Mr. Siff has been a voice teacher and interpretive coach, teaching in New York, Italy, Israel, Holland and China, giving Master Classes for the Met Opera Guild, and was on the faculty of the Renata Scotto Vocal Academy. At present, Ira is Permanent Guest Teacher at the Royal and the Amsterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands.
At the Opera Excellence Center he delivers the canto workshops.
Liora Maurer, born in Tel Aviv, joined the Metropolitan Opera as an Assistant Conductor during the 2008-2009. She has prepared numerous productions at the Met, notably the famous Franco Zeffirelli production of La Bohème, Satyagraha by Phillip Glass, which will soon be released as a DVD, as well as Verdi’s Stiffelio and Anthony Minghella’s visually stunning production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, both conducted by Placido Domingo. Ms. Maurer was the pianist and coach for the final workshop of Nico Muhly’s new opera Two Boys, a co-production between the Met and English National Opera before its successful premiere at ENO this past summer. Two Boys will make its United States premiere at the Met in 2013.
Prior to joining the Met, Ms. Maurer was an Assistant Conductor at New York City Opera since the 1997-98 season. She was the recitative accompanist for Rossini’s Viaggio a Reims, working in collaboration with Rossini scholar Phillip Gossett, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. In 2010 Opera Magazine reviewed Don Giovanni and stated that “Liora Maurer furnished fine harpsichord continuo” and New Yorker magazine praised her playing ‘for adding witty adornments.” Ms. Maurer also contributed to the musical preparation of the New York City Opera’s telecasts of Benjamin Britten’s Paul Bunyan and Puccini’s Tosca.
In 1999 Ms. Maurer was invited to the U.S.A. Spoleto Festival to prepare and perform in the American premiere of Kurt Weill’s Die Bürgshaft under the musical direction of Julius Rudel. The critical and popular success of the production resulted in the first commercial recording of the work, and was released in the summer of 2000 on the EMI label, featuring Ms. Maurer playing the piano as part of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra. The following year, Maestro Rudel invited her to do the musical preparation for Pittsburgh Opera Theater’s production of the same work. She also worked with the Seattle Opera, Wolf Trap Opera Company, Omaha Opera.
In addition to Placido Domingo and Julius Rudel, Ms. Maurer has worked with noted conductors such as Gary Bertini, Stephen Lord, Marco Armiliato, Stuart Bedford, Emmanuel Joel, George Manahan, Paul Nadler, Riccardo Frizza and Lucy Arner. Ms. Maurer has also worked with many important singers including Violeta Urmana, Stephanie Blythe, Marcelo Alvarez, Denise Graves, Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Joseph Calleja, Kassimira Stoyanova, Liping Zhang, Simon O’Neill, Raul Gimenez, Barry Banks, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, James Morris, Louis Quilico among others. She has also worked with Seattle Opera, Wolf Trap Opera Company, Opera Omaha, Opera Cleveland and the New Israeli Opera.
Currently Liora Maurer is on the faculty of the International Vocal Arts Institute, where she has been fortunate to collaborate with many famous names in the world of opera, Sherrill Milnes, Renata Scotto, Mignon Dunn, Federico Davia and Renato Capecchi. She has performed all over the world, including Israel, Germany, Spain, Japan, Italy, Perú and Puerto Rico. She is a graduate of the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and received a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she received a full scholarship. She has won numerous awards, including a grant from the America-Israel Foundation.
At the Opera Excellence Center she delivers the piano/ co-repetition workshops.
Conductor Lucy Arner brings to the podium a special affinity for Italian and French opera that is enhanced by her vast experience working in some of the world’s greatest opera houses, such as the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Metropolitan Opera.
Known as “a true singer’s conductor,” Lucy Arner made her professional debut in 1996 conducting Puccini’sSuor Angelica and Menotti’s The Telephone at the Teatro Mancinelli in Orvieto, Italy. Ms. Arner has conducted opera and concerts all over the world, and was the first woman to conduct opera in Mexico City’s historic Palacio de Bellas Artes. She was appointed Artistic Director of the New York Chamber Opera in November 2000, and made her debut with the company conducting an exciting and controversial production of Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. Under her direction, the Chamber Opera carved out a unique niche in New York’s operatic landscape, presenting Donizetti’s Il Campanello, Seymour Barab’s Not a Spanish Kiss and Fortune’s Favorites, and the sold-out run of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in an interpretaion higly apraised by the critics.
At the Opera Excellence Center she delivers the orchestral technique workshops.
First-soloist of the National Opera from Bucharest, Oana Andra is a mezzo-soprano famous at international level. She graduated the Music Academy from Bucharest, Canto (Prof. Maria Slătinaru-Nistor) and Opera Directing sections (Prof. A. I. Arbore şi G. Zaharescu). She attended master class courses with Daphne Evangelatos, Mariana Nicolesco, Alberto Zedda, Regine Crespin, Carlo Cossutta and Sir Colin Davis, Oana Andra herself being afterwads invited to sustain a master course for young musicians from Japan (2000).
She studied a long time for finding her own style of interpretation, and the results did not delay to appear. Oana Andra was awarded at 15 international competitions of great tradition, among which “Francisco Vinas” (Spain), “IVC” (Netherlands), “ARD” (Germany), “ICES” (Switzerland), “Julian Gayarre” (Spain), “Queen Sonja“ (Norway), Shizuoka (Japan), “Boris Christoff” (Bulgaria).
Her repertoire is very rich, including roles in operas by Mozart (Zerlina Don Giovanni, Sesto – La Clemenza di Tito, Dorabella – Così fan tutte), G. Rossini (Rosina-Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Isabella – L’Italiana in Algeria), V. Bellini (Adalgisa – Rule) Giuseppe Verdi (Maddalena -Rigoletto), Bizet (Carmen – Carmen), Charles Gounod (Siebel- Faust), J. Massenet (Charlotte – Werther), Hector Berlioz (Ascanio-Benvenuto Cellini), Piotr Ilici Tchaikovsky (Eugene Onegin Olga), A. Ponchielli (Laura- La Gioconda), George Enescu (Jocaste- Oedipe).
Oana Andra’s vocal-symphonic repertoire of lieds is also impressive, covering a wide range of composers, from Bach, Pergolesi, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, to Ravel, Respighi, Mahler, M. de Falla and Szymanowski.
She collaborated with famous artists such as Nicolai Ghiaurov, Pier-Luigi Pizza, Ruggero Raimondi, June Anderson, Alberto Zeddam, Marcello Viotti, Maurizio Benin, Renato Bruson, Inva Mula, Raul Gimenez, Michiyoushi Inoue, Mariana Nicolescu, Alexandru Badea, Elena Mosuc.
One of the most significant moments of her career occurred in 2005 at the national celebration of Monaco, where she participated with “Il Viagio di Reims” (Giacomo Rossini), led by conductor Maurizio Benin, at the reopening of the concert season and the Garnier Opera in Monte Carlo.
His international debut, which was a veritable success, took place in January 2009 on the scene of the Hamburg Opera where he interpreted the role of MacDuff in G. Verdi’s Macbeth. In March of the same year, he made his debut at Vienna’s State Opera where he performed the part of Ismaele from the opera Nabucco also by G. Verdi. This was followed by his debut in Pucinni’s La Bohème on the scenes of opera houses in Timisoara, Bucharest and Hanover. In December of the same year he makes his debut at the Royal Opera House in London with La Bohème, here he obtains the appreciation of the public and the critics. And because 2009 had to be complete, he was rewarded with two prizes, Soloist of the year offered by VIP Gala Awards and Ludovic Spiess Prize awarded by Romanian Music Forum. In 2010 he received the in memoriam Iosif Sava award by Radio Romania Cultural. One of his collaboration with important names of world lyrics is the Valladolid concert – Spain 2011, together with the famous soprano Angela Gheorghiu.
Teodor Ilincai has and will perform, until 2014, on the stages of operas from Monte Carlo, Hamburg, Viena, Peralada, Sevilia, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Macerata, Toulouse, Barcelona, Marseille, Lausanne, Santiago de Chile, Frankfurt, Avenches, Londra, Paris (La Bohème, Madama Butterfly – G. Puccini, MacBeth, La Traviata , Nabucco, Otello – G. Verdi, Faust, Romeo et Juliette ̶ Ch. Gounod, Evgheni Oneghin – P.I.Tchaikovsky).
In a context generated by the existence of an important number of musicians and of a music conservatory, backed by a long tradition of symphonic and opera interpretation, the Sibiu State Philharmonic was created on January 1st, 1949; a professional concert and performance institution which has sustained thousands of symphonic and opera music concerts in over 50 years of activity, thus assimilating a vast symphonic and lyric repertoire.
Countless Romanian and foreign newspaper and magazines chronics have praised the musical level of the Sibiu orchestra’s concerts, mirroring at the same time the quality of their radio, television, disc and CD recordings.
At the same time they sustained an important number of successful tours both at home and abroad – in France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, Russia etc. Famous Romanian and foreign interpreters have performed alongside the Sibiu orchestra; out of these, we may recall: Ion Voicu, Valentin Gheorghiu, Ştefan Ruha (Romania), Monique De La Bruchollerie and Jean Jaques Thiollier (France), Sviatoslav Richter, Rudolf Kerer, Lazăr Berman, Dimitri Baskirov (Russia), Ivry Gittlis (Switzerland), Monserrat Caballe (Spain), and many others.
Founder of Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra of Bucharest, associate professor of the National University of Music Bucharest and former director of the Romanian Radio Orchestras, Horia Andreescu is currently Chief Conductor of the George Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest.His studies at the University of Music in Bucharest (composer and conductor with exceptional teachers) at the Music Academy in Vienna (with Hans Swarowski and Karl Österreicher) and courses with Sergiu Celibidache are a solid conducting of its becoming.From his collaborations with orchestras in Romania and abroad – especially in Germany, where he was 13 years of “permanent guest conductor” at Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, 10 years at Dresdner Philharmonie and 21 years at the Staatskapelle Schwerin – there are over 60 entries market discography, including 16 with orchestras in Europe. Here are some of the more recent CD performed by Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, published in CPO in 2007, another registered Westdeutscher Rundfunk Cologne (works of composer Pascal Bentoiu), published in 2004 in Hastedt, a CD released in 2008 to “Electrecord” with works by Dvorak and Moussorgsky-Funtek, registered with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and in 2009, Byzantine Easter Oratorio by Paul Constantinescu, National Radio Orchestra, published by House Radio.
Horia Andreescu made entirely Enescu (8 CDs), edited by “Electrecord” and “Olympia, London” and well aired, consistently contributes to knowledge from Tokyo to New York to this great composer.
Horia Andreescu collaborate with many other orchestras, such as London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchesta, symphony orchestras of Jerusalem, Nagoya, BBC Scottish, radio orchestras of Madrid, Leipzig and individual tours with National Radio Orchestra Bucharest and the “George Enescu” Philharmonic, festivals like Wiener Festwochen, Dresdner Festspiele, Europa Musicale Munich and, of course, the “George Enescu” International Festival in Bucharest, rounded brief presentation of the conductor.
Ioana Cristina started to play violin at the age of four having as her teacher her grandfather, the violinist Aurelian Anghelescu. In 2007 she started to study with maestro Stefan Gheorghiu. Currently she is a student in the class of Professor Petru Munteanu at the Music and Theater Academy in Rostock, Germany.She has received several prizes in different competitions, including 1st Prize and Special Prize ‘Bach’ at the International Competition for Violin, Kloster Schontal 2009 in Germany, 3rd Prize at the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition 2006 in Italy, 1st Prize at the International Kocian Violin Competition 2008, 4th Prize at the International Violin Competition ‘Ion Voicu’ 2009 in Romania, 4th Prize at the Remember Enescu International Violin Competition in Romania, 1st Prize at the George Georgescu International Violin Competition 2000, 2002 and 2009 in Romania, 1st Prize at the Paul Constantinescu Competition 2003, 2004 and 2005 in Romania and the Prize of the Romanian Union of Composers 2005. She is also a laureate of all editions of the Romanian National Olympics for music. In 2011, she received 1st Prize and Special Prize ‘Reinhold Würth Förderpreis’ for further studies at the International Competition for Violin, Kloster Schontal (Germany). In 2012 she succeeded at the ‘Andrea Postacchini’ International Violin Competition in Fermo (Italy).Ioana Cristina has performed with orchestras like the Chamber Orchestra ‘Radio Bucharest’, the ‘Moldova’ Philharmonic Orchestra of Iasi, the Nationanal Moldavian Philharmonic of Chisinau, the ‘Mihail Jora’ Philharmonic Orchestra of Bacau, the ‘Oltenia’ Philharmonic Orchestra of Craiova, the ‘Paul Constantinescu’ State Philharmonic in Ploiesti, also with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Brasov, Galati, Botosani, Targoviste, Oradea and orchestras in Italy, China and Moldova.
In 2010 she performed as a soloist in the Romanian Atheneum with the National Youth Orchestra of Romania conducted by Horia Andreescu. Furthermore, Ioana was invited to perform at the ‘Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’ in Northern Germany. She also played as a soloist with the ‘George Enescu’ Philharmonic Orchestra and at the ‘George Enescu’ International Festival 2007 with the ‘Dinu Lipatti’ Musical College Orchestra. The same concert was also held in the same year in China. Moreover she has given numerous recitals as a solo violinist or accompanied by piano.
Her repertoire includes the major concertos for violin and orchestra alongside with pieces and sonatas from pre-classical to modern music. Ioana Cristina was granted a Vincenzo Rugieri violin from the ‘Sinfonima’ Foundation of Mannheim.
Constantin Adrian Grigore was born in Bucharest in 1983. He began his musical studies as a violonist at the age of 7, at Dinu Lipatti Music Highschool in Bucharest.
After he graduated Highschool, he was enrolled at the orchestral conducting class within the National University of Music Bucharest under the guidance of Petru Andriesei and Horia Andreescu and later with maestro’s Ilarion Ionescu. Within the framework of CEEPUS and Erasmus – Socrates scholarships, he continued his musical studies at “Karol Lipinski” Academy of Music, Wroclaw, under the guidance of the polish conductor Marek Pijarowski. In addition, Constantin Adrian Grigore has participated at different Masterclasses, such as International Masterclass for Orchestral Conducting and Phenomenology of Music (Craiova 2012 – prof. Konrad von Abel),Wiener Meisterkurse (Viena 2008 – prof. Salvador mas Conde), The Roads of Romanticism (Warshaw 2006 – prof. Marek Pijarowski) and so forth.
In 2011 he was addmited as conductor in residence at Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the guidance of maestro Marek Janowski and later in 2012, he was attending the rehearsals and concerts of Munchener Philharmoniker and Sinfonieorchester des Bayrisches Rundfunk, where he had the possibility to meet the the most representative conductors nowadays like: Mariss Jansons, Bernard Haitink, Alain Gilbert, Paavo Jarvi, Lawrence Foster or Vasily Petrenko.During his studies in Germany he had taking part in the phenomenology courses held by Konrad von Abel in Munchen.
He received numerous distinctions and prizes, such as “Fraţii Bucovineni” prize for being head of promotion at National University of Music Bucharest, first prize at “Garabet Avachian” Interpretation Competiton, Semifinalist in Jeunesses Musicales Conducting Competition (Bucharest, 2010), as well as different diplomas awarded by the Romanian Government for contribution in various cultural projects which he had in co-ordination.
Constantin Adrian Grigore is appointed as a guest conductor of Ion Dumitrescu State Philharmonic Orchestra-Râmnicu Vâlcea, Radio Chamber Orchestra from Bucharest, Piteşti State Philharmonic Orchestra, Oradea State Philharmonic Orchestra, Ploiesti State Philharmonic Orchestra, Sibiu State Philharmonic Orchestra, Musical Theatre „Nae Leonard” Orchestra-Galati, National Opereta Orchestra from Bucharest, „Oleg Danovski” Opera Orchestra-Constanta, Chamber Orchestra R-20 from Wroclaw, Kielce Philharmonic – Poland or the National Republic of Moldovia Chamber Orchestra or the National Republic of Moldavia Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2009 he was the conductor of Bucharest Symphonic Pops, during the extraordinary concert held in Bucharest by Al Bano and Montserrat Caballe and in 2013 he was chosen to conduct the Evolution Tempo Orchestra in Steve Vai Europe Tour, in Russia, Poland, Italy and Spain.
In 2009 Constantin was the principal conductor of the George Enescu Music Highschool Symphony Orchestra (wherewith held concerts in „George Enescu” International Festival, one of the most prestigious Festival in the world).
Also, he is one of the founding member and main conductor of the Royal Camerata Orchestra, wherewith supported numerous concerts in Romania, as well as Albania, Republic of Moldovia or Poland.
He collaborated with well renowned soloist such as Florin Croitoru, Nicolae Licaret, Daniel Podlovschi, Florin Ionescu Galati, Teodor Ilincai, Cristian Mogosan, Irina Iordachescu, Stefan Ignat, Ana Maria Donose, Cristina Anghelescu, Ioana Goicea, Raluca Ouatu, Tina Munteanu, Horea Haplea, Ingmar Anthony Lazar, Cristian Sandrin, Ioana Ilie, Laura Nicorescu, Anna Mirescu, Natalia Konik, Wictor Kociuban, Piotr Banasic or the National Chamber Choir “Madrigal”.
Currently he is appointed as Principal Conductor of Craiova State Philharmonic Orchestra.