Results of the ENCORE National Composition Competition
The wait is over!
The jury, composed of composers Doina Rotaru, Gabriel Almași, and Cristian Lolea, has deliberated and selected the four winners whose works will be performed during the ENCORE Tour, led by pianist Adriana Toacsen. The tour will take place this fall in Bucharest (as part of the MERIDIAN International Festival – “Persona”), Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, and Brașov. Selected compositions will also be published in a score collection and recorded on the ENCORE album.
Winning works:
Andrei Petrache (b. 1998, Bucharest) – Vertij
Irina Perneș (b. 2001, Bucharest) – Old Women Falling Out
Andrei Virgil Popescu (b. 1997, Iași) – Allemande à la Chopin
Rubin Szabó Bázsa Lovász (b. 2002, Cluj-Napoca) – Malneirophrenia
The jury also decided to award two special mentions:
George-Ioan Păiş (b. 1994, Cluj-Napoca) – Interfon stricat
Oana-Maria Vardianu (b. 2002, Bucharest) – Danse orientale
These works will also be included in the ENCORE score collection.
The prizes are awarded by the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania.
Congratulations to all participants!
The ENCORE Competition was open to Romanian composers under 30 years of age. The competition theme focused on instrumental miniatures suitable for encore pieces for piano, with a recommended duration of 3 minutes.
The competition and the ENCORE project – initiated by pianist Adriana Toacsen, who has dedicated much of her recent work to supporting contemporary music – aim to enrich the repertoire of encores, instrumental miniatures that remain in the audience’s memory at the end of a concert. In classical music, encores embody surprise, the celebration of interpretive effort, and the connection between soloist and audience. For the performer, the encore is a moment of freedom from the concert program’s rigor, a moment of relaxation, celebration, and an opportunity to showcase technical and interpretive skills as well as the performer’s humor.
The ENCORE project and National Composition Competition are organized by Art&Co Association and co-funded by the Romanian Cultural Fund Administration and Stalfort Legal. Tax. Audit. Project partners include the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania, National University of Music Bucharest, “George Enescu” University of Arts Iași, Banatul Philharmonic Timișoara, Transilvania Philharmonic, and Brașov Philharmonic. Media partners: Radio România Muzical, Radio România Cultural, Societatea Muzicală, Actualitatea Muzicală, Bookhub, Metropotam.
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