MIHAELA MITROFAN
violin
Mihaela Mitrofan is a 3rd year student at the Faculty of Instrumental Performance at the National University of Music in Bucharest. She studies violin in the class of prof. Univ. Dr. Ioana Croitoru. She graduated from the “George Enescu” National College of Music in Bucharest in the violin class of Prof. Olivia Papa. She has won numerous national and international awards, including – Grand Prize at the international performance competition – Rovere d’Oro, violin section, 2019, San Bartolomeo al Mare – Italy; Grand Prize at the Dan Cumpătă national performance competition – chamber music section – 2020. Mihaela participated in master classes in Romania and Switzerland with internationally recognized teachers and soloists such as Sherban Lupu, Mihaela Martin, Silvia Marcovici, Florin Negreanu and Philip Draganov.
CORNELIUS ZIRBO
cello
Cornelius Zirbo was born in Cluj-Napoca, where at the age of 9 he began studying the cello at the “Augustin Bena” High School of Music. He continued his studies at the “Sigismund Toduță” Music College, in his hometown, later he transferred to the “Dinu Lipatti” National College of Arts, Bucharest, where he studied in the class of professor Octavian Lup, and is currently studying for his bachelor’s degree. of the National University of Music Bucharest in the class of master Marin Cazacu. He studied in Paris, where he studied in Gautier Capuçon’s Cello Excellence Class, held at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. So far he has benefited from the guidance of many international cellists such as: Gautier Capuçon, Frans Helmerson, Miklós Perényi, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Götz Teutsch, Maximillian Hornung, Romain Garioud, Alexander Buzlov, László Fenyő, Jan-Eriky , etc. He is ambassador of the Summer Academy of the prestigious Verbier festival (Switzerland), where he studied cello and chamber music with Frans Helmerson, Miklós Perényi, Pamela Frank, Klaus Hellwig, Gábor Takács-Nagy and James Ehnes, in the summer of 2017. He also participated in the cello masterclasses at the Kronberg Academy, Germany, and in July 2016 and 2018 he was accepted as an active student at Frans Helmerson’s masterclass, held at Palazzo Ricci in Montepulciano, Italy. numerous competitions in the country and abroad, such as: the International String Competition “StreichWerk” in Berlin, where he won first place; “Young Virtuosos” International Competition, Sofia, Bulgaria (1st place); “Antonio Janigro” International Cello Competition, Croatia (3rd place); “ProArt” International Cello Competition, Ukraine (2nd place), “Concertino Prague” International Competition, Czech Republic (2nd place) and 1st place at the National Instrumental Performance Olympiad (from 2010 to 2018) His concert activity includes concerts and recitals in Romania, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, China, etc. in prestigious concert halls, such as: Konzerthaus (Berlin), Louis Vuitton Auditorium Foundation (Paris), Rudolfinum (Prague), St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London), Eglise de Verbier (Switzerland), Concert Hall of National Library (Beijing) and the Romanian Athenaeum (Bucharest). Cornelius appeared on the stage of the famous music festivals: Verbier (Switzerland), Enescu (Romania), SoNoRo (Romania), Chiemgauer Musikfrühling (Germany), South Bohemian (Czech Republic) and Toamna Muzicală Clujeană (Romania). He has performed as a soloist with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Khmelnitsky Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra, the “Transylvania” State Philharmonic, the “Moldova” State Philharmonic, the Royal Chamber, the National Youth Orchestra of the Princess Margaret of Romania Foundation and the National Orchestra. Junior”. He has appeared in various chamber ensembles with well-known artists such as: Mihaela Martin, Frans Helmerson, Gautier Capuçon, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Diana Ketler, Anna-Liisa Bezrodny, etc. In his professional rise he was financially supported by the Princess Margaret Foundation (through the “Young Talents” project), the Union of Performers in Romania, Provident in partnership with the School of Values and the Community Foundation.
KARINA UȚĂ
piano
“Victor Brauner” High School of Arts, Piatra Neamț, class of 2017, piano section, teacher Reader guide. Univ. Dr. Mihaela Spiridon and Professor Magdolna Cosma
Currently a fourth year student at the National University of Music Bucharest, piano section, class of Prof. Univ. Dr. Viniciu Moroianu
Professor of chamber music, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Adriana Maier
Professor of the accompaniment section, Prof. Univ. Dr. Steluța Radu
CONCERTS
Concert within the show “Ilinca Dumitrescu and his guests”, Bucharest 2008
Concerts of the National Olympics-Radio Iași 2010
Concert within the show “Young performers and world music”, Radio Hall 2012
Concert within the “Balchik Piano Days” Festival – Bulgaria 2021
Recital at the “Lipatti Evenings” festival, Pitesti 2018
Concert with the “Universitaria” orchestra under the baton of conductor Alexandru Ganea-
National University of Music Bucharest, 2019
Recital within the “Neamt Music Festival” Masterclass. Masterclass held by
professors at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland, Petras Geniusas and Graeme McNaught,
artistic director Daniel Ciobanu, 2019
Concert with the Pitesti Philharmonic, under the baton of conductor Tiberiu Oprea, 2019
Concert with the orchestra within the “Neamt Music Festival”, under the baton
conductor Daniel Ciobanu, concert postponed due to the state of emergency
Recital at the Russian Center for Science and Culture, February 2020
AWARDS
“Carl Czerny” National Piano Performance Competition Piatra Neamț
2007 – Third Prize
2008 – First Prize
2009 – First Prize
2010 – First Prize
2011 – Second Prize
2012 – Second Prize
2013 – First Prize
2014 – First Prize and Special Jury Prize
2015 – First Prize
2017 – First Prize
“Emanuel Elenescu” International Competition, chamber music section
First prize
National Instrumental Performance Olympiad
2011 – Second Prize, Timișoara
2012 – First prize and special prize of the jury, Ploiești
2013 – Third Prize, Cluj-Napoca
2014 – Second Prize, Iași
2015 – Third Prize, Baia Mare
2016 – Third Prize, Bucharest
Grand Prize at the National Instrumental Performance Competition “Spring
Arts”, Bacău, 2014
First Prize at the National Piano Interpretation Competition “Piano Artis”, Iași, 2011
First Prize at the National Piano Competition “Remember Dinu Lipatti”, Iași 2008
The International Instrumental Interpretation Competition “Golden Pound”, Suceava
2008-Second Prize
2009- Second Prize
2011- Third Prize
2020- Grand Prize at the National Interpretation Contest “Dan Cumpătă”, section
chamber music
2021- Winning a SoNoRo scholarship within the Contest “Heirs
Musical Romania”
2021- Winning the UNIMIR scholarship
ACTIVITY
Recordings at the Radio Hall for the soundtrack of a film with the trio Op.100 in Mi
flat major composed of Fr. Schubert
Accompaniment to the Opera Class of the National University of Music, the Opera “La
Boheme”- G. Puccini