Ioana Gonțea is a cultural manager with over seven years of experience, working at the intersection of performing arts, visual arts, and cultural education. This year, she founded a cultural management, artistic production, and project-writing organisation called Uzinele Creative.

In 2023, she worked within the framework of Timișoara – European Capital of Culture as the Operational Manager of the Art Encounters Foundation, overseeing the organisation’s activities for exhibitions including Victor Brauner: Inventions and Magic, the 5th edition of the Art Encounters Biennale, and Brâncuși: Romanian Sources and Universal Perspectives.

In 2019, following her receipt of the Gabriela Tudor Cultural Management Scholarship, she co-founded the cooperative FIR, through which she develops projects addressing current societal issues.

Adriana Toacsen is a pianist who has transformed the encore into a declaration of love for contemporary music. With a relaxed demeanour and an ever-curious spirit, Adriana guides her audience through an honest and up-to-date dialogue with the music of the present. When it comes to recitals, she sometimes turns them into true stories for children, parents, and grandparents alike.

Her programmes combine the elegance of the classical repertoire with the energy of modern and contemporary music, highlighting Romanian compositions in particular. She has performed at major festivals in Bucharest, Cluj, Timișoara, Sibiu, Iași, Brașov, Chișinău, and Potsdam, always with the consistency of those who know exactly what they wish to convey.

I am a versatile artist, deeply engaged in a variety of disciplines, including cinematography, new media art, music and sound design, concept writing, and performative dance.

I embrace the belief that "authenticity is everything," which inspires me to embark on a personal journey to discover my true identity.

Together with my partner, Vlad Grigore, I co-founded the ORDOETCHAO studio, where we explore creative ideas through both visual media and writing.

Born in 2002 in Cluj-Napoca, Rubin Szabó Bázsa Lovász began her musical studies at the “Sigismund Toduță” Music College, where she studied piano and violin. In 2020, she embarked on her higher musical education at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Academy of Music, studying violin under the guidance of Lecturer Dr. Răsvan-Ionuț Dumitru. In the same year, she also began her Philosophy studies at Babeș-Bolyai University.

In 2022, she founded the “Contemp(l)o” project in Cluj-Napoca, a platform promoting contemporary music as well as young composers and instrumentalists. That same year, she also began her studies in Musical Composition at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Academy of Music under Associate Professor Dr. Cristian-Antoniu Bence-Muk.

In the summer of 2022, she took part in the Erasmus project Hangzavart – Paikka (Hungary), where she deepened her knowledge of contemporary music, both as a composer (microtonal music, aleatoric music, prepared piano, electronic and mixed music) and as a performer (extended techniques, contemporary improvisation, and jazz).

In 2023, she was awarded Second Prize at the Coraliada National Choral Composition Competition (Category: Mixed Choir). She was also selected, alongside nine other composers, for the finals of the Retracing Bartók National Composition Competition.

She has attended composition courses and workshops with Cristian Lolea, Nadav Lev, Amos Elkana, Boaz Ben-Moshe, Alexandre Jamar, Barnabás Dukay, János Bali, and Ákos Nagy.

Rubin is active in the dual role of composer and performer (violinist).

As a performer, she has won prizes at national competitions and has performed both as a soloist and as part of chamber ensembles (such as the Resonance Quartet) at festivals across Romania. She is also an active orchestral musician, performing both in Romania and abroad (Hungary, Serbia, Estonia, Germany, Czech Republic).

Since the 2022–2023 season, she has worked with the Odorheiu Secuiesc Philharmonic and collaborates with other orchestras, philharmonics, and opera houses in Romania.

She has taken part in masterclasses with Remus Azoiței, Ștefan Horváth, Corina Loboț, Aylen Pritchin (Russia), Kaido Välja (Estonia), Tanja Becker-Bender (Germany), and Konrad von Abel (Germany).

The coexistence of intuitive and rational dimensions in the formation of composer Gabriel Mălăncioiu (born in 1979 in Brașov) is rooted in his graduation from both the Faculty of Automation and Computers and the Faculty of Music and Theatre in Timișoara. Alongside the decisive influence of Maestro Remus Georgescu, who initiated him into the study of musical composition, his Master’s and Doctoral studies at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca brought him into contact with major figures of Romanian musical life, such as Cornel Țăranu, Adrian Pop, Valentin Timaru, and Eduard Terényi.

Gabriel Mălăncioiu’s music has been performed on five continents in more than 300 concerts, interpreted by prestigious ensembles such as Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, the Slovenian Chamber Choir, and Ensemble Aventure; by soloists such as Florian Mueller, Gudrun Hinze, and Richard Craig; and under conductors including Michael Wendeberg, Huba Hollókői, and Martina Batič.

Composer Corneliu Dan Georgescu remarked that Gabriel Mălăncioiu is “one of the most active personalities, a self-assured and highly original voice in the contemporary musical landscape.” His scores are published by Universal Edition.

Gabriel Mălăncioiu is a member of the Union of Romanian Composers and Musicologists, of the Executive Committee of SNR-SIMC, and of several international musical organisations, including Vox Novus (USA), La Villa des Compositeurs (France/Italy), Temp’ora (France), Access Contemporary Music (USA), and the Society of Composers (USA). He currently teaches Stylistics of Contemporary Music Performance, Orchestration, and Musical Analysis at the West University of Timișoara, Faculty of Music and Theatre.

Sabina Ulubeanu is one of the most complex artistic personalities of her generation, with over 25 years of creative activity, spanning composition, musicology, photography, experimental performance, and the artistic direction of a contemporary music and arts festival.

She was born in 1979 in Bucharest. She studied piano at the George Enescu Music High School, and then attended the National University of Music Bucharest, under the guidance of Professors Tiberiu Olah and Doina Rotaru. In 2001–2002, she studied composition with Violeta Dinescu on an Erasmus scholarship at Oldenburg, Germany. In 2011, under Octavian Nemescu, she earned a PhD in Music, summa cum laude, with a thesis entitled “The Function of Memory in the Construction of Musical Time”, which represents the artistic manifesto of her work.

Her compositions include chamber, symphonic, choral, and multimedia works, performed in Romania, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, the United States, and Iran, in festivals such as George Enescu, Art Safari, SIMN, Meridian, InnerSound, Gemischter Satz, Timsonia, and in concerts organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute. Her works have won national and international composition prizes and have been broadcast on European public radio.

She has collaborated with renowned performers and ensembles, including Arcadia Quartet, Petersen Quartet, Camerata Regala Orchestra, Dublin Sound Lab, Green Thing Ensemble, Archeus Ensemble, Aperto Ensemble, SonoMania Ensemble, UNMB Symphony Orchestra, UNMB Dixtuor Ensemble, as well as distinguished conductors and soloists: Tiberiu Soare, Gabriel Bebeselea, Claudia van Hasselt, Matei Ioachimescu, Alexandru Tomescu, Adrian Tomescu, Laura Buruiana, Matei Varga, Adriana Paler-Nicolescu, Barbara Lueneburg.

On September 1, 2019, her orchestral work #justacomposer opened the concert series Music of the 21st Century at the George Enescu International Festival. Since 2006, she has also explored photography, focusing on intimate spaces and human relationships, reflecting on time, space, and memory. Her photographs have been exhibited in Romania, Portugal, and Austria, and are part of private collections in several countries.

Since 2011, she has been the founder and artistic director of the InnerSound New Arts Festival in Bucharest, Romania’s first platform promoting contemporary music in relation to visual arts and multimedia. Under her direction, the festival was nominated for the AFCN Awards (2016, 2018) and the Radio Romania Cultural Awards (2018).

In 2013, she became a music critic for the George Enescu International Festival website, and has also contributed to publications such as Ziarul Festivalului, Liternet.ro, and the musicology journal Muzica. She has appeared as a speaker at events including TEDx Cambridge School of Bucharest (2015), Aspen Ideas Sibiu (2016), PR Beta Timisoara (2017), Mastering the Music Business Bucharest (2017), Pecha Kucha Bucharest, and frequently appears on radio and TV programs.

In 2021, together with mezzo-soprano Claudia van Hasselt and composer Amen Feizabadi, she developed the transmedia project The Unified Voices of Banat, inspired by the historical Banat region, premiering in Berlin and later performed in Bucharest and Timișoara. In August 2022, she coordinated the contemporary dance and music residency BioAREALab, collaborating with choreographers Cosmin Manolescu and Cristina Lilienfeld as composer and performance artist.

Andrei Virgil Popescu, born on 22 January 1997 in Iași, began studying the violin at the age of six with the violinist Ioan Morna. He later continued his musical studies at the "Octav Băncilă" National College of Arts in Iași, in the violin class of Professors Irina Honciuc and Natalia Epure.

His compositional debut took place during the concert of the orchestra of the "Octav Băncilă" National College of Arts in Iași in December 2014, where the overture Elysium was performed, a work composed under the guidance of the composer Ciprian Andrei Ion.

He went on to attend the "George Enescu" National University of Arts in Iași, where he studied composition with Associate Professor Dr Ciprian Andrei Ion and conducting with Associate Professor Dr Bogdan Chiroșcă.

During his undergraduate studies, he participated in national composition competitions, receiving several awards, the most notable being: two first prizes at the "Alexandru Zirra" National Composition Competition in 2018 and 2020, and third prize at the "Ștefan Niculescu" National Composition Competition in 2016.

His conducting debut took place during the 2020–2021 season of the Romanian National Opera in Iași, with W. A. Mozart’s opera The Impresario.

Between 2020 and 2022, he composed the music for the theatrical productions: Oricând cu plăcere by I. Mircioagă and R. Dragomirescu; Juna primă by J. P. Dopagne; and Soacra cu trei nurori by Ion Creangă, directed by Valentin Marcoș, staged at the independent theatre "TACT" in Sighișoara and at the "Luciafărul" Theatre in Iași.

He is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the National University of Music Bucharest, in the composition class of Professor Dr Dan Dediu.

Andrei Petrache studied piano for 12 years at the “G. Enescu” National College of Music (class of Ileana Busuioc), graduating in 2017. In parallel, he studied guitar, flute, double bass, and percussion as secondary instruments. In 2021, he completed his bachelor’s degree in Classical Composition under Professor Dan Dediu and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the same field. He is also studying orchestral conducting under the guidance of conductor Cristian Mandeal.

Andrei is a regular presence on concert stages in Romania, performing solo piano recitals, chamber music, and in various jazz and world music ensembles. His performances have earned him over 30 awards in national and international solo piano competitions, in addition to several ensemble awards for musical groups he has been part of, in jazz performance and composition competitions.

As a composer, Andrei has created over 70 works in a variety of styles (classical, modern, jazz, fusion), covering both vocal and instrumental genres, as well as electronic music, and has also explored music for film and choreographic performances. His compositions have won more than 25 prizes in national and international composition competitions and have been performed at numerous concerts and festivals in Bucharest, Deva, Brașov, Târgu Mureș, Timișoara, Pitești, Ploiești, Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca, Sfântu Gheorghe, Moscow, Paris, Hanover, Jerusalem, Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brussels, Wenduine, Zeebrugge, Aalborg, and Dubai.

Sebastian Androne-Nakanishi graduated from the National University of Music in Bucharest, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees under the guidance of Professor Dan Dediu. Through two Erasmus scholarships, he studied musical composition at Birmingham Conservatoire and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

He subsequently obtained a second master’s degree in Composition for Film, Theatre, and Media at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (Switzerland).

His music has been performed by renowned ensembles and orchestras across Europe and beyond, winning more than 25 national and international composition competitions, including the Grand Prize at the George Enescu Competition (2014). In 2022, he was named Composer of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards, becoming the first Romanian to receive this distinction.

I believe that music should be written with passion, honesty, and a strong desire to weave connections among all of us and among all things, both synchronically and diachronically. My journey belongs to the question “Who am I?”, a search for one’s own (artistic) will, the facets of one’s truth, increasingly effective ways of expressing oneself (compositionally), and the most precise means to evoke the “inner self.” It is not a journey toward originality, but toward authenticity. It is not a pursuit of acoustic innovation, but a musical manifestation that is as ingenuous, eloquent, and meaningful as possible.

Cristian Bence-Muk (b. 31 August 1978, Deva) graduated from the Composition Department of the “Gh. Dima” National Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, under Professor Hans Peter Türk, class of 2002. In 2005, he earned a Doctorate in Music, specialising in Musical Creation, under the guidance of Acad. Prof. Cornel Ţăranu. Currently, Cristian Bence-Muk serves as Associate Professor in the subjects “Musical Forms and Analysis” and “Composition” and is the Dean of the Theoretical Faculty at the Cluj Music Academy.

His musical output includes choral, vocal, chamber, symphonic, vocal-symphonic works, chamber opera, and ballet. He has received several national awards, and his works have been performed in concerts both in Romania and abroad (France, Italy, Sweden, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, USA, etc.) and published by music publishers in Romania and Switzerland.

As a project director, he coordinated two research projects funded by C.N.C.S.I.S. (2006–2007 and 2010–2013), which promoted creation, performance, and musicological research in contemporary music. He has been actively involved in various cultural and artistic syncretic projects exploring the relationship between music and literature, painting, sculpture, and film.

In addition to his contemporary music projects, since 2013 he has arranged and orchestrated 27 Romanian folk carols in a vocal-symphonic format (the CD Maria se preumbla, containing the first 14 arrangements, sold over 10,000 copies), a work recognised with an Excellence Award for vocal-symphonic arrangements of Romanian carols – the LSM Excellence Award 2019, Chicago. On 11 June 2022, he was elected Vice President of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania.

Irina Perneș is a composer and violinist born in 2001. She began studying the violin at the age of seven and is currently studying classical composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest, under the guidance of composer Diana Rotaru.

She began her composition studies with Sabina Ulubeanu, continuing to deepen them after being admitted to the university’s classical composition department. Following her university admission, an important project that influenced her path was the contemporary music masterclass “Escape Art Lab,” where she studied violin, composition, and improvisation with teachers such as Diana Rotaru, Raluca Stratulat, and Alessandra Rombola, as well as another improvisation masterclass led by percussionist Aldo Aranda.

After starting university, she participated in composition competitions such as “The Creative Music Class” in December 2020 (1st prize with two works, The Phobia Suite for solo piano and The Broken Vinyl of Beethoven for string quartet); the “Ștefan Niculescu” composition competition in April 2021 (2nd place with a duo for cello and piano, Visele insomniacului); the “International Composer Prize” in August 2021 (with a piano sonata, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde); and the national Mihail Jora competition in January 2022 (1st prize with a quintet for flute, string trio, and piano, Animalele din Oglinzi).

From 1 October 2022 to 5 February 2023, she studied at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland, as an Erasmus student in the classical composition department under Professor Ignacy Zalewski. Recently, she has focused more on concerts than competitions, participating annually in the university’s composition concerts, Chei: in 2021 with the piece Broken Vinyl of Beethoven, in 2022 with M87 performed by Vlad Polgar along with audioplayback, and in 2023 with Visele Insomniacului for cello and piano. In the SIMN concerts, her piece Fauna of Mirrors was performed by the Sonomania ensemble, and on 22 May 2023, a solo horn piece she wrote, Monologue on a Song without Words, will be performed by Danish horn player Erik Sandberg.

Her works were also performed during her Erasmus stay in Poland: Tinnitus for flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, and percussion in the composition class concert of Professor Ignacy Zalewski on 20 December 2022; Loneliness for Moog Mother-32, audioplayback, and video by Tudor Jelescu in the Elektrofonia concert on 8 January 2023 (with a repeat performance a week later in Poznań); and Three Friends for two voices and ensemble in the contemporary concert on 29 January 2023.

In Bucharest, she collaborated with director Alma Andresscu, composing the electronic music for the theatre production Legăturile Klarei, which premiered on 12 April 2023 at Teatrul Apropo and continued performances on 16, 18, and 22 May 2023. Her most recent concert will be with the Atem ensemble on 18 May 2023 in Timișoara, as part of the Retracing Bartók competition.

Vlad Ciocoiu is a young composer, performer, and music journalist, engaged in an ongoing process of interdisciplinary development. Active across various areas of contemporary art, he uses music, performance art, and contemporary dance to tell stories about the world and explore different forms of human connection. He is a music editor at Radio România Cultural and a member of groups such as The Mad Hatterpillars (a collective dedicated to sound exploration, composed of students and alumni of UNMB) and Sondragore (a duo founded with Ana Creangă, blending ancestral sonorities with contemporary alternative and psychedelic influences).

Ana Sireteanu graduated with a bachelor's degree in Musicology from the Composition, Musicology, and Musical Pedagogy Faculty of the National University of Music in Bucharest, under the supervision of Prof. Valentina Sandu-Dediu, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in Musicology at the same university. She has won multiple editions of the National Musicology Competition, as well as the 2023 edition of the Mihail Jora National Competition for Composition, Critique, and Musical Performance. Since 2022, she has also been a reporter for Radio România Muzical, producing interviews, reports, and programs covering major national and international music events.