Maria Balabaş

Maria Balabaş is a Romanian artist and journalist. She studied musicology at the National University of Music in Bucharest and obtained her Master degree writing about the role music played in the social evolution of the Radio. She is the moderator of 2 broadcasting programs at the National Cultural Radio – Crossover Morning and The Sonorous Generation – and she is member of the EBU Ars Acustica Group and of Propuls Association, that promotes contemporary music. She collaborates with different printed and online magazines such as Dilema Veche, Tataia, liternet.ro, jazz.ro.

Maria is a founding member of the artistic collective Avant’n’Gard, dedicated to improvised music. The group released three albums: Landscape Painted in Tea (bootleg album, 2010), Tinfoil Sun and Untempered Carols (2012) and was invited to participate in festivals such as the International Week of New Music (Bucharest, 2010-2012), Jazz And More (Sibiu, 2011), Bookfest (2012), Astra Film Festival (2012), FanFest (2012), Street Delivery (2010-2011) etc.

As a solo artist, she had a residence in the Sound Delta project (2007), collaborated with ResonanceFM RAdio (London) and participated with a piece on the compilation Framework250. In 2012 she created the graphic score in the project Soundforrest (Viviana Iacob & Dslx, MNAC Anexa, 2012), was invited to participate in Explore Dance Festival with the graphic and sound installation Pasarea care-si musca auzul (“The Bird that Bites its Hearing”) and worked for another sound installation and performance (La Madeleine Sonore) with the French Institute in Bucharest. She also organizes the Sounds That Walk project.