Iulia Cibişescu-Duran

Iulia Cibişescu-Duran (b. May 2, 1966, Deva) is a Romanian composer of mostly orchestral, chamber, choral, and vocal works that have been performed in Europe. She studied piano with Zoita Sfarlea at the Lyceum of Music in Cluj-Napoca from 1972-84 and there graduated with a diploma. She studied composition with Cornel Taranu at the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca from 1985-90, where she then studied orchestral conducting with Petre Sbarcea and Emil Simon from 1991-96 and earned diplomas in both subjects, as well as her DMus in musicology in 2001. She also attended masterclasses in France and Germany from 1995-97, on scholarships.

Among her many honors are four prizes in the Gheorghe Dima competition in Cluj-Napoca (Second Prize, 1987, for Sonata [piano]; First Prize, 1989, for Trio; First Prize, 1990, for Cantata No. 2; Prize of the Romanian Composers Union, 1991, for String Quartet No. 1). More recently, she received First Prize in the Iasi competition and the Romanian TV Prize in Iasi (both 1996, both for Aegean Melancholy) and two prizes in the competition of the Lucian Blaga Festival in Sebes (Lucian Blaga Prize, 1996, for Three Lieder [soprano, small orchestra]; Second Prize, 1999, for Three Lieder [tenor, viola, piano]). She also earned two prizes as a conductor in the Craiova competition (Constanin and Jean Bobescu Prize, 1995; Filip Lazar Prize, 1996). Her music has been performed in Germany and Romania.

Iulia Cibisescu-Duran is also active in other positions. She worked as a critic for four Romanian newspapers in Cluj-Napoca from 1990-96 and later wrote the book Structuri polimorfe în postmodernismul muzical românesc – Polymorphic Structures in Postmodern Romanian Music (2002, Editura Media Musica). Moreover, she has written much poetry, including the books Ascunzisuri de masti – The Hiding Places of Masks (1995, Editura Mesagerul) and Taina egipteana – The Egyptian Secret (1997, Editura Cogito). She founded the contemporary music ensemble Art Contrast in Cluj-Napoca from 1992, which she conducted from 1992-97. Since then, she has conducted orchestras throughout Romania. She has been a member of the Professional Women’s Advisory Board of the American Biographical Institute since 2000.

She taught counterpoint, harmony, music history, and music theory at the Lyceum of Music in Cluj-Napoca from 1990-95. She then taught score reading as an assistant at the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca from 1995-98, where she has been a professor of the same subject since 1998. In addition, she has given conferences in Germany, Moldova and Romania. (source)