Iulia Cibisescu-Duran: Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra No. 2

(Submitted by ARFA)

Iulia-Narcisa Cibișescu-Duran (b.1966) is a Romanian composer of orchestral, chamber, choral, and vocal works that have been performed in Germany, France, Italy, USA, Brazil, Bolivia, and Australia. Ms. Cibișescu-Duran studied composition with Cornel Taranu and then orchestral conducting with Emil Simon and Petre Sbarcea at ”Ghe. Dima” National Music Academy of Cluj-Napoca, and earned diplomas in both subjects, as well as her DMus in musicology in 2001. Among her many honors are composition and conducting prizes at various competitions including First Prize in the Gheorghe Dima Competition, First Prize and Romanian TV Prize in the Iasi Competition, Lucian Blaga Prize, The Union Composers Prize (2006), Filip Lazăr Prize, Jean and Constantin Bobescu Prize, etc. She has conducted many concerts with Philarmonic Orchestras of Timisoara, Sibiu, Targu-Mures, Craiova, Ploiesti, Botosani, Brasov, Oradea, Bacau, Ramnicu- Valcea, Arad, Satu-Mare, Vidin (Bulgaria), Bucharest Radio Chamber Orchestra, and the New Transilvanian Orchestra. In 2009 she earned a composition residence in Connecticut, USA, and in 2010 her piece Passacaglia for piano was selected by ISCM World New Music Days Festival in Sydney, Australia where it was performed by British pianist Kerry Yong. She founded the contemporary music ensemble Art Contrast in Cluj-Napoca with which she performed many concerts in the country and abroad. Now, Iulia Cibisescu-Duran is professor at National Music Academy of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The poetic metadiscourse in Cibișescu-Duran’s Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra No. 2, which is based on the polymorphism of languages as well as on the heterogeneous construction of conglomerates and sound evolutions, generates a kaleidoscopic dimension of the musical phenomenon at the level of distance and philosophical-poetic reflection on the musical text. The premiere of the work took place on 22 May 2014 in a performance featuring violin soloist Eugen Cibișescu-Duran with the Philharmonic of Bacau, Romania, conducted by the composer.