I am a composer/performer and maker from Romania, based in Belgium. My work focuses on finding authenticity of the presence on stage.

As a composer I worked with performers for research purposes, collaborated in interdisciplinary projects (theater, dance, film, performance) and elaborated creative arrangements for pedagogic purposes.

My music performing activity ranges from free improvisation to folk and world music, early and contemporary music and I am thrilled to play for special audiences ( psychiatric patients, toddlers, elderly people a.o.).

I have experience in leading creative workshops and have done so in the past decade, organizing also summer camps in villages and experimental creation labs for artists.

Below you can find more details about my activity and studies. For any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

My compositional work focuses on the construction of psychological tensions in the frame of notational contexts where game-pieces are confronted with result-oriented music. Interdisciplinarity is a big part of my activity, seeking common parameters and mechanisms for creation processes which may bring together people that belong to different disciplines and cultural backgrounds.

Besides my creative work I’m a violinist and violist engaging with varied audiences and performance contexts. From more classical-oriented approaches to trans-stylistical experiments, I’m constantly trying to find freshness and authenticity in each performance I take part in.

Improvisation is an extremely important tool for the expression of my immediate musical action and interaction with other artists and audiences. It is also a way for approaching the interpretation of written works with the idea of being able to improvise in the “language” of the music I play.

I am also a music educator specialized in giving workshops for children and/or adults where they can learn to unfold their inner musicality and creative potential, in both personal and collective terms.

Composition Violin/Viola Theater&Interdisciplinary Workshops

Studies:

1995-2007:

Music studies at George Enescu Musis College: violin, piano, theory & solfege, accompaniment, orchestra, chamber music, music history

2003-2007:

Lessons with Bogdan Voda (composition); Lessons and masterclasses in violin with Ladislau Csendes, Radu Zvoristeanu; viola: Ilona Totan a.o.

Final thesis on Beethoven late works and phaenomenologic analysis

2007-2011:

National University of Music Bucharest:

Ba in composition with Doina Rotaru; composition course: Octavian Nemescu; Melodic construction: Dan Dediu; Harmony, Polyphony&Counterpoint, Analysis, Esthetics, Orchestration, Ethnomusicology

Ba in Orchestra Conducting (prof. Dumitru Goia); Final thesis: “Sound and Silence in Webern’s Music”

Ba years I-III in Classical Violin Performance: prof. Mirela Tomescu; chamber music; orchestra; baroque music (violin, harpsichord, Basso Continuo)

2009-2010:

Ghent Royal Conservatoire exchange program. Composition: Octaaf van Geert; orchestration: Frank Nuyts, Ethnomusicology: Moniek Darge; Analysis: Philippe Rathé; a.o.:Live electronics; Violin: Olga Zolotareva; Extra courses on West-African percussion, didgeridoo, Taiko, classical percussion; improvisation workshops with Joelle Leandre

2011-2013:

Joint European Master for New Audiences and Innovative Practices, The Hague Royal Conservatoire; Research on non-visual scores and game pieces – Action Research project “InnerEye”

Violin course with Vera Beths; courses and workshops: European Improvisation Project; ImproLab; Lighting Design; Performance&Communication;

2012&2013:

exchange program at Icelandic Academy of the Arts, Reykjavik: Medieval Music Workshop, Experimental Opera Lab, Electroacoustic music.

2013-2015:

busking tour & independent projects

2015/2016:

composition classes with Wim Henderickx, Luc van Hove, pianoforte, music history (Eugeen Schreurs), improvisation (Yves Senden)

2016-2018:

theater performance @ KunstZ Academy, Matterhorn, Antwerp

2016-:

Ma in Early Music: Baroque Violin at Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. Violin with Mira Glodeanu, Benoit Douchy, Joanna Huszcza; ornamentation & improvisation: Thomas Bathé, Jean Tubery

for pedagogy CV see below

Composition Violin/Viola Theater&Interdisciplinary Workshops

Composition

My interest in composition began when I was in the first years of playing the violin and developed with my increasing obsession for analyzing, reading and organizing abstract theoretical structures. But only in my teens I got the courage to actually start writing more than just bits and pieces on the back of my violin scores. Coming from a strongly theoretical music environment, my first composition attempts found themselves torn between adoration for the classical masters with over-structuralisation on one side, and total refusal of classical structures with immersion in multi-media on the other side.

During the years of study at the Bucharest Conservatoire with very dear professors I could dive into the specialties of the house: the richness of archaic cultures and highly detailed work with Doina Rotaru, structure and ingenuity with Bogdan Voda and Dan Dediu, a crazy amount of “something different” spiced up with ideological and political interpretations thanks to Octavian Nemescu and a great perspective in real and imaginary musics in the classes of Liviu Danceanu.

An exchange year in Ghent (courses a.o. with Octaaf van Geert, Frank Nuyts and Filip Rathé) allowed me to further develop these parameters for composing but added some hands-on experience: I could learn to play african percussion, didgeridoo, classical percussion, know more about the Flemish polyphonic school and could finally agree that I had arrived to a dangerous place: I could already see I had a “style”, that I further consumed in my last year in Bucharest.

After my Bachelor in Bucharest I decided to take a different approach: inspired by every single discussion I had about my pieces after they had been performed, I decided to compose less and focus more on audience feedback for re-defining my languages. During this period I was doing research for my Master at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and had the chance to focus on my activity as violinist and composer in a more integrative way by being in the position of curating concerts, giving workshops and improvising intensively. I slowly began to see them less as different “departments” of life and more as co-working parts of myself. My final research, the project InnerEye, gave me many tools for exploring game pieces and composing mechanisms independent of traditional score notation, thus helping me in seeing better what I really wanted to compose with beyond materials and style.

I spent two sabbatical years moving around with projects and busking. In this period I focused mostly on game pieces and procedural composition. I was in contexts in which I had to build pieces for people who could not read traditional notation, audience, non-musicians. Also I was inspired by impromptu working sessions with musicians on the streets and by giving creative workshops which needed fast results from kids or adults. Some inspiring names for me in this process have been also Wim Henderickx, Misato Mochizuki and Joji Yuasa. All this input contributed to experimenting and refining my technique for process oriented music building.

After slowly moving to one place again, I could come back and revise my “written” or “extremely detailed classical-contemporary notation” style and confront it with my more recent procedural composition methods and test out how they could work together, in purely musical as well as interdisciplinary contexts. My latest work consists mostly of catalogues, remixes and written music for sight-specific settings, but I occasionally write also just “normal” pieces...whatever that would mean. My greatest joy is when in a concert there are children and none of them has left or screamed!

I am very happy to share all this story in the form of actual recordings of pieces on my soundclouds, so I wish you an interesting listening experience!

For more formal data on my education check CV

About Violin/Viola Theater&Interdisciplinary workshops

Violin

I was five years old when my parents took me to the music school of our neighbourhood. After ten minutes the teacher came out of the class and asked my parents to help her take me off the piano. My story with the Violin has its ups and downs: I many times found myself going on just for the promise that in a few years I could learn to play my most loved repertoire and composers. In fact, I was so busy between taking normal school very seriously and practicing for competitions and exams that I can barely understand how I had time to also go outside and play.

But the most magical moments that marked my childhood are those of concerts I played at elderly people homes, sometimes for psychiatric patients, or for informal and family settings. That, I felt, was my stage, as opposed to the multiple occasions per year that I had to perform for a jury.

Gradually I discovered the wonderful world of chamber music and modern composers. And, the piano and...the viola. Thanks to my dearest teacher, Radu Zvoristeanu, I could develop a tasteful style of performance for the mainstream repertoire; I now realize that this style is so much like the old school that can be heard in the first ever recordings of the beginning of the 1900s, a style which is used as inspiration for the Hystorical Informed Performance practice nowadays. This is where I felt most at ease when I joined the classes at the Bucharest Conservatoire. I searched for as many practice and performing possibilities as possible in regards to variety of musical styles and ensemble combinations. Other people I would like to mention, to whom I am very thankful, are Dumitru Goia (my orchestra conducting professor, from whom I learned how to approach repertoire at a completely different level), Ilona Totan (my viola teacher), Serban Soreanu (chamber music), Dan Racoveanu (my coach in baroque music) and Laurentia Onose (my violin teacher during school years), Ladislau Csendes (violin/viola). During my Master in The Hague I had the chance to take part in many improvisation labs and projects, have lessons with Vera Beths and develop my research in memory and sound image while working at the project InnerEye.

Getting out of the academic setting gave me the opportunity to fully dedicate to improvising and getting experience in a variety of styles and genres. During my years in Ghent, The Hague and as a street musician I got involved in various projects and learned to play folklore (Balkan, West-African, Armenian), world music, café-konzert and many others.

A consistent part of my activity as a performer is collaborating with composers. I had the pleasure of premiering pieces in The Netherlands, Romania, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Iceland, Czech Republic, Serbia, Argentina, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Israel a.o.

Last three years I could further pursue my interest in Hystorically Informed Performance Practice with a three-fold agenda in mind (technique, languages variety and improvisation/ornamentation) by studying a Master in early music at Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, having amazing professors such as Mira Glodeanu, Benoit Douchy, Joanna Huszcza, Jean Tubéry.

I most enjoy exploring acoustics of alternative concert settings (from house concerts and art galleries to caves) and the spontaneity of a first time improvisation with new people, but also playing some Schumann sonata or Sciarrino capriccio in a storytelling frame during a hospital performance.

Listen to my improvisation soundcloud or an album recorded as a “blind date” in Bergamo.

Listen to violin / viola / piano recordings on soundcloud.

For more formal data on my education check CV.

About Composition Theater&Interdisciplinary Workshops

Theater & Interdisciplinary

For theater, stage and functional music, visit this soundcloud playlist.

Writing

As part of my theater work I started to write texts with a performance idea in mind (as opposed to my purist vision on texts when I was studying philosophy). Check my journal for some of the latest texts. I post a new one at least once per month, which is later developed in a performance.

Texts on Blog

Also on the Blog I post my research texts.

Photography and drawing

I am obsessed with patterns and natural structures: they help me see and hear music everywhere, and easily become graphic scores in my mind. I would like to thank Christine Roggeman specifically for helping me with getting back to drawing and photography, that I had abandoned since secondary school.

Installations and scenography

Lastly, these are some installations/scenography projects I designed. The starting point was creating spaces for interactive performances, but it rapidly turned into more.

About Composition Violin/Viola Workshops

Workshops

 Giving workshops is a great opportunity for me to share what I most love.

I had multiple experiences with giving workshops for varied ages, contexts and purposes: from children to elderly people, from community projects to specialized courses for professionals or self-analysis. With each group that I meet I learn more about the infinite possibilities of doing things and for me it is a great exchange of ideas and emotions.

In contrast to my very theory-oriented and structured education (which culminated with my Ba studies in Orchestra Conducting), I am continuously seeking ways for improving my presence and leading style in front of groups I coach and I am combining different methods and visions to stimulate people in being themselves and allowing their concepts and ideas to come to life. Below you can read more about my education and experience for teaching.

Education CV:

2007-2011: Pedagogy diploma for teaching composition and theoretical courses (during Ba in Composition and Ba in Orchestra Conducting @ National University of Music Bucharest)

2007-2011: Pedagogy diploma for teaching violin (during Ba in Violin Performance @ National University of Music Bucharest)

2011-2013: Leading & Guiding module (Guildhall workshops leading method), summer school, intensive workshops @ Royal Conservatoire of Music The Hague; followed Kodaly Method course

2013: scholarship @ Kodaly summer Academy, Kecskemet. Module on Kokas method

2013-2015: Erasmus+ workshops and projects on coaching, leadership, group teaching, informal education

2016-2017: Resilience training with Dr. Herlinde Wynants – arts for supporting medical resilience

2019: participation in project Vliegwiel – course on leading workshops by Wisper @ KunstZ

Experience:

-organized creative camps in Romania and led workshops for children in Romania, Iceland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Argentina

-led music meditation workshops in Belgium, Argentina, The Netherlands

-music improvisation coaching for theater groups (amateur and professional) in The Netherlands (as part of Goedlaak collective), Romania & Belgium

2012-2015: created and realized workshops and concept concerts for children and adults in unconvential settings at ThemisArte Alternative center for Music Education, Romania.

2014-: workshops and group leading for musicians and artists on composition, improvisation and interdisciplinary creativity (School of Arts Al Ain-United Arab Emirates, Escuela Nacional Superior de Musica, Escuela Municipal de Danza Neuquen – Argentina, Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp – Belgium, Conservatoria of The Hague and Tillburg – The Netherlands, Icelandic Academy of the Arts).

This is an activity report of some past workshops

For more info about main workshop projects please visit Projects page

Some moments from past projects:

Soundcloud of first Imaginary Geometries workshop:

Collaboration song @ Nordic Art Involves, Inspires and Unites, Iceland

Moments from CultRuralis Summercamp, Romania

ABOUT COMPOSITION VIOLIN/Viola Theater&Interdisciplinary