Speranţa Rădulescu
Speranta Radulescu is senior researcher in ethnomusicology, at the Peasant Museum and at the National University of Music in Bucharest. She was born in Buzau, 1949 and she graduated in musical composition (1967-1973) with a doctor’s degree in musicology (1984). She worked first with the Ethnography and Folklore Institute and later with the Peasant Museum in Bucharest. Her very wide research field involves the classification and typology of Romanian peasant music, folk harmonization, the music of the Roma from Romania, new musics (pan-Balkan fusion, world music), the musical reflection of the Romanian social-political structure and ideology, media musics and minorities’ musics (Hungarian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Roma, Aromanian). She edited traditional music records and series of records (in Romania, Switzerland, France, USA, Germany), published five books (one of which, À tue tête. Chant et violon dans le pays de l’Oach, Roumanie – Out Loud. Songs and Violins in the Land of Oas, Romania, with French researchers Bernard Lortat-Jacob and Jacques Bouët, was released in Paris, and afterwords published in Romania), and a small book dedicated to the musicians of the Gypsy band Le taraf des Haidouks (Eng. Outlaws) – Hopa tropa Europa. She organized traditional music concerts in Romania and abroad. Since 2005, she is Associate Professor at the National University of Music in Bucharest.
Speranta Radulescu is member of the Romanian Composers’ Union (member of the Musicology Dept. since 1979), the French Ethnomusicology Society and ICTM (International Council for Traditional Music). Among her many awards, she received the Romanian Academy Award (1987), the Romanian Interpreters’ Union Award (1994), the Excellence Price of the review „Formula As” (2002) and the “Cultural Merit” medal, Ist class (2004). She was nominated for the “Preis der Deutschen Shallplattenkritik”, for the CD “Gypsy Music from Central Transylvania” (Ethnophonie 007) and for the CD “festive Musics of the Jews from the Botosani Region” (Ethnophonie 012). In 2005 she was awarded the Price “Coup de coeur” of the Charles Cros Academy (France) for the first ten records of the collection “Ethnophonie” and, in 2006, the “Preis des Deutschen Shallplatten Kritik” for the CD “The Aromanians of Andon Poçi: Songs and Stories / Albania” (Ethnophonie 012)
Extensive works: Taraful şi acompaniamentul în muzica de joc / The Folk Band and the harmonic accompaniment in the dance music, Bucureşti , Ed.Muzicală, 1984; Cîntecul liric. Tipologie muzicală / The Lyrical Song. Musical Typology, Bucureşti, Ed. Muzicală, 1990; Peisaje muzicale in Romania secolului XX /Musical Landscapes in 20th Century Romania, Bucureşti, Ed. Muzicală, 2002; À tue tete. Chant et violon au Pays d’Oach, Roumanie, Nanterre, Société d’ethnologie, 2002 (in cooperation with Bernard Lortat-Jacob and Jacques Bouët) (translated and published also in Romania, Din răsputeri. Glasuri şi cetere din Ţara Oaşului, Institutul cultural român, 2006); Taifasuri despre muzica tiganeasca/Chats about Gypsy Music, Bucuresti, Ed. Paideia, 2004; Ethnophonie series of records (22 CDs with booklets, 23 cassettes), 1992-2012, Bucureşti, Muzeul Ţăranului.
She produced 16 CDs with Romanian traditional music, published in different countries (France, USA, Switzerland, Germany). She has written more than one hundred articles published in Romania and abroad (France, Bulgaria, Check Republik, Croatia, Germany, Greece, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, USA) and she was involved in more than one hundred radio broadcasts for the Romanian Broadcast Society.