Gheorghe Costinescu, born in Bucharest in 1934 and residing in New York since 1969, has been active as a composer, conductor, pianist, musicologist, and educator. After earning an MA in composition from the Bucharest Conservatory under Mihail Jora, he continued his studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne and Luciano Berio at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1976 he received a PhD with Distinction from Columbia University, where he studied with Chou Wen-chung. His chamber, choral, orchestral, and stage works have been performed in  major cities in Europe and the United States, and at the Royan, Shiraz–Persepolis, and Tanglewood festivals. His stage work The Musical Seminar, a winner in the League-ISCM National Composers Competition, was premiered at Lincoln Center in New York City. The German version of the work was produced by the State Opera of Stuttgart, and the British premiere took place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

Costinescu has received grants and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the Ford Foundation. He also received a Fulbright Scholarship, the Romanian Academy’s George Enescu prize, and the Alexandre Gretchaninoff Memorial Prize from The Juilliard School.  His theoretical writings include studies and articles on contemporary music, essays on comparative aesthetics, and A Treatise on Musical Phonology.

Gheorghe Costinescu has held teaching positions at The Juilliard School, Columbia University, and the New School for Social Research. In 1982, he joined the faculty and subsequently directed the electronic music program at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he became Professor Emeritus of Music in 2003.

Violeta Dinescu (b. July 13, 1953, Bucharest) is a Romanian-born German composer of stage, orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal, and piano works that have been successfully performed and recorded across Europe. Prof. Dinescu graduated from the Gheorghe Lazar Lyceum in Bucharest in 1972, studied composition with Myriam Marbe at the Conservatory Ciprian Porumbescu in Bucharest from 1972-78 (receiving a one-year study of composition in 1977-78) and subsequently had two years of musicology studies in Heidelberg. She taught at the George Enescu Music School from 1978-82, and then moved to Germany, where she taught at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Heidelberg from 1986-91 and the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt from 1989-91, and lectured at the Fachakademie Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Bayreuth from 1990-94. Since 1996, she has been Professor für Komposition at the Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg. She has also given guest lectures in South Africa and the USA. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including four Romanian Composers Union awards (1975-76, 1980, 1983), Second Prize at the GEDOK International Composition Competition (1982) and First Prize at the International Competition for Composers (Utah, 1983). In addition, she has received Third Prize at the G.B. Viotti International Music and Dance Competition (1983) and the Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Preis for her opera Hunger und Durst (1985); she has also received mentions from numerous other competitions and commissions from numerous festivals. She has been a member of the Romanian Composers Union since 1980 and an executive board member of the International League of Women Composers since 1985.

MUSIC: Satya IV

Myriam Marbé, the “Great Lady” of Romanian music (1931-1997), studied composition at the Bucharest University of Music with Mihail Jora and Leon Klepper, while also attending the master classes held by Mihail Andricu (who has a decidive role in shaping the entire generation of composers to which Marbé belongs). She taught composition at the University until 1988, when she was awarded a creative scholarship by the city of Mannheim. During her career, she received numerous prizez, the Romanian Academy Award (1977) and many international distinctions, such as the Bernier Award (Paris) or GEDOK (Mannheim). Her work is a synthesis between extreme rigor and aleatorism. For instance, Ritual for the Thirts of the Earth (1968) wishes to avoid any conventional system of organization, by replacing musical sounds with words. In several of her compositions, Marbé resorts to gestures and especially to the power of words, of ritual valls, in a very convincing manner. Jocus secundus (1969) highlights the synthesis between words and instrumental music. In 1974, Eine kleine Sonnenmusik reflects the return to a music of totality, while Vocabulary I, Song and even Cyclus mark a sudden change of stylistic attitude. The concert works of 1974-1978 are remarkable through their state of genuine musical euphoria. Artificial Birds and the String Quartet belong to a period of purging, but excel in the spectacular colour of the notation, while Recovered Time (1982) or the Concerto for Viola da Gamba, Tenor and Orchestra (1982) mirror Byzanthine influences. On one hand, Marbé’s music is based on the living tradition of Romanian and Byzanthine church music and of peasant folklore; on the other hand, its rich language is achieved throught the ingenious adaptation of modern techniques.

MUSIC: Trommelbass

“Born on January 2, 1928 in Arpăşel, Romania, Tiberiu Olah studied at the Cluj Conservatory (1946-49). In 1948 he won a scholarship to study in Paris. However, as of 1949 all scholarships for Western Europe were cancelled due to political reasons, and therefore he was granted, as compensation, a scholarship to the Tchaikowsky Conservatory in Moscow (1949-54). Despite Stalinist restrictions, he found there a dependable musical life and together with his teacher E. Messner and his composer colleagues Dennisov, Holopov, Roshdetwensky, A. Wolkonski managed to discover musical realization.
Since his student days, Olah has participated in numerous international seminars, workshops and festivals, such as the Warsaw Autumn Festival (1968, 1971), the “Ferienkursen für Elektronische Musik” organised by the Siemens-Studio in Munich (1966), and the “Internationalen Ferienkursen für Musik” in Darmstadt (1966-73). Since 1954, he has been a professor of composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest.
Olah has been a composer-in-residence at the invitation of the Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienst (DAAD) (1969,1970); holder of a DAAD research scholarship (1978), and a member of Gesellschaft für Musikalische Aufführungs- und Mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte member (since 1968). However, he has also experienced some setbacks, including his failure to be admitted to the Romanian Academy in 1971-1972, as his musical style was considered by the communist hierarchy as not being representative enough of their ideals.

His honour list comprises prestigious awards: the “Koussevitzky Foundation” prize – USA (1974) for “valuable contributions to the music of our days”; the “George Enescu” prize of the Romanian Academy (1964); two Golden Pelican prizes of the Association of Cineasts (1965, 1971); the Film Festival Award – 46Moscow (1972); four awards of the Composer’s Union in Romania (1974-75, 1979, 1980, 1986); the Grand Prize of the Composer’s Union in Romania (1993) for his entire oeuvre, The Excellence Prize of the Film National Centre (2002) for “valuable contributions to the Romanian film ”, and The Romanian National Order “Faithful Service” at the rank of Commander for “valuable artistic contributions and cultural promotion” (2001). Tiberiu Olah died on October 2, 2002.” (Laura Manolache)

Descendant of an aristocratic family settled in Romania two centuries ago, composer Adrian Mociulschi has graduated the National University of Music in Bucharest (1997), where he studied composition with Stefan Niculescu. He also studied philosophy at the Roman Catholic Theological Institute in Bucharest. He has a PhD cum laude at the National University of Music in Bucharest. He received various prizes and international distinctions such as the “Himalaya Trophy” awarded by China Radio International (1995), ”Premio Presidente Disputacion de Valencia” awarded by the Municipality of Montserrat (2000) etc. He has been invited to national and international radio and TV shows. His works appear on collective albums pubished in Europe. He has presently dedicated himself to the scientific literature, publishing three volumes in the last few years at Curtea Veche Publishing House: the first monography of composer Stefan Niculescu (“Stefan Niculescu: Poetics, mathematics and musical harmony”, 2010), “The Middle Ages: Architecture and Music” (2011), “Art and Comunication” (2012). He has been a member of the Romanian Composers‘ Union since 1998.

Composer Cristian Marina was born in 1965 in Cluj, Romania, where he received his basic musical training, as a cello player at the School of Music and in composition at the “Gh. Dima” Music Academy, with Cornel Taranu. Since 1987 he has been living in Sweden, where he completed his studies in composition at the Royal Music College in Gothenburg and Stockholm, with Magnus Lindberg and Sven-David Sandström a.o.
He attended the “Academie d’été” – IRCAM, Paris 1995, with Luca Francesconi and the “Accademia Chigiana”, Siena 1996, with Franco Donatoni. He also studied with Miklos Marós and he attended courses with Brian Ferneyhough, Philippe Manoury a.o.
His music, which covers almost all genres, has been performed at concerts and festivals, as well as broadcast in most
European countries, Japan and Hong Kong. His works were performed at the ISCM-World Music Days: in Hong Kong, China, 2002 and 2007, Slovenia 2003 and Croatia, 2005.
His scores have been published by Edition Suecia and his works have been recorded on CD by Phono Suecia, Fylkingen Records (Sweden), 7 Dreams Records (Romania) as well as Edition LGNM (Luxembourg).

MUSIC: High Anxiety

Liviu Marinescu’s works have received recognition in numerous festivals of new music throughout the world, and have been performed by prominent orchestras and ensembles, including the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Czech Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, Orchestra 2001 in Philadelphia, the National Chamber Radio and Music Academy orchestras in Bucharest, as well as the 20th Century Consort, North-South Consonance, and Archaeus ensembles.

His debut at the Bucharest International New Music Festival when he was 21 years old, was noted by the Parisian newspaper Le Monde de la Musique, which described one of the concerts he co-organized with other young composers and artists as being “inventive in its evolution, content, and substance,” and promoting an “anti-conformist view.” Soon after, the Bucharest newspaper Actualitatea Muzicala acknowledged that Liviu Marinescu “not only has the intelligence and maturity expected from a modern artist, but also the ability to express himself through sounds in a convincing way.” In the U.S., his music has been praised by numerous publications, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, while the critics of The Strad, Strings Magazine, and New York Concert Review recognized its “real expressive power and attractive rhetoric,” “majestic assertiveness,” and “startling moments.” His works have been recorded and released by Centaur, Navona, and Capstone Records and published by the American Society of Composers.

Over the past two decades, Marinescu’s voice has brought the contemporary music scene a refreshing aesthetic stance, in which the traditions shaped by the Eastern European avant-garde have been organically integrated with the sounds and attitudes of the postmodern era. His early works, such as his first String Quartet from 1990 and the Chamber Concerto of 1993, focused on the exploration of heterophony, sound mass, and various types of elastic sound textures. This direction was soon to be changed. Following Edwin London’s invitation to study in the U.S. in 1994, Marinescu developed a growing interest in the distortion and twisting of established compositional forms and practices, through the use of paraphrases, quotations, and subtle humor. The widely acclaimed Quodlibet Sonata of 1997 as well as many of the chamber and orchestral works that followed, including Mozamorphosis, Déjà Vu, Pastiche, Bach Variations, Über Alles or Homage Collage, are representative of Marinescu’s original voice. Recently, his interest in exploring acoustic instruments in combination with electronic media has led to the development of new sonic gestures, and the creation of an archetypal musical language, more personal and refined.

Equally committed to mentoring young musicians, Liviu Marinescu has taught a wide range of composition and theory courses at Concordia College, MN, West Chester University, PA, University of Maryland, and Cleveland State University, and has been a visiting professor at the Trondheim Conservatory in Norway and the National University of Music in Romania. Since his 2002 appointment as coordinator of music composition and theory at California State University Northridge, Dr. Marinescu has received numerous awards and grants from the Fulbright Commission, the American Music Center, ASCAP, Meet the Composer Fund, as well as the Fromm Music Foundation Prize at Harvard University.

MUSIC: Harmonic Fields

Adrian Enescu (born March 31, 1948) is a Romanian composer (film soundtracks & contemporary music). As an individual musician, he also pioneered the local electronic scene during the 1970s-80s. He graduated from the “Ciprian Porumbescu” Music Conservatory in Bucharest, composition – class of Aurel Stroe, Alexandru Pascanu-harmony Among his list of accomplishments are music for ballet in Italy, China and Australia, music for theater in Romania, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Australia, Canada, Columbia and Costa Rica.

MUSIC: Irreversible

Composer Pascal Bentoiu studied harmony, counterpoint and composition with Mihail Jora and piano with Theophil Demetriescu. He spent three years researching the rhythm and harmony of Romanian folk music at the Bucharest Folklore Institute and then began composing for the stage. His operas are written with dramatic flair and make use of a variety of elements, including folksong, tape, serialism and diatonic qualities. His instrumental and orchestral works also contain a variety of contemporary techniques, and Bentoiu’s work is characterized by its color and lyricism.
He has edited the sketches of the fourth (1934) and fifth (1941) symphonies of Georges Enescu into shape for performance. (There is a recording of both realizations from a 1998 festival.)

MUSIC: Symphony nr. 6 part 6 “White”

Adrian Pop began his music studies early, with his father, composer and conductor Dorin Pop, continuing them at Cluj Conservatory with Sigismund Toduta and Cornel Taranu (composition). He attended courses with Stefan Niculescu and Aurel Stroe (Piatra Neamt, 1972, 1973, 1982), Dieter Salbert (Bayreuth, live-electronic music, 1974, 1975), Ton de Leeuw (Burgas, composition workshop, 1979; Amsterdam, 1984, 1988), Joji Yuasa (Amsterdam, composition workshop, 1988). PhD in musicology at the University of Music in Cluj (2001), with the thesis on the Romanian requiem (Cluj, Edit. Media Music, 2004).

Professor at the School of Art in Cluj People (1976-1982), secretary of music (1983-1991), director (1991-1995) and artistic consultant (1995) of the Transylvania Cluj-Napoca Philharmonic, contributor (1985-1992) and lecturer (2001) of the “Gheorghe Dima” Academy of Music Cluj-Napoca. He has published articles and reviews in “Muzica” magazine, “Steaua” (Cluj), “Tribuna” (Cluj), UTUNK (Cluj), etc. Adrian Pop is a founding member of the “Gheorghe Dima” foundation (1990), the “Sigismund Toduta” foundation (1991) and the “Mozart” Romanian Society (1991) Cluj-Napoca. His compositions were awarded the Romanian Composers Union prize (1978, 1980, 1989), Romanian Academy Award (1996), awards from international competitions Tours (1978), Arezzo (1979), Trento (1982, 1984, 1986), Roodeport / South Africa (1983), Spital an der Drau / Austria (1986).

MUSIC: Inventioni