Welcome Concert to the newly arrived Ambassadors
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Cotroceni National Museum and Societatea Muzicala organize the Welcome Concert that we all offer to the newly arrived Ambassadors: Therese Hyden (Sweden), Lea Stancic (Slovenia), Roelof Sander van Ees (Netherland), Paul McGarry (Ireland) and Phillipe Henri Pierre Corneil Benoit (Belgium), at the beginning of their mandates in Romania.
The concert took place at The Cerchez Concert Hall of The Cotroceni National Museum, as usual, on Monday, 11th of November at 3:30 p.m., and was followed by a „vin d’honneur”.
Invitation only!
Musicians
- Michèle Ramis (piano) – Special guest!
- Anne-Marieke Evers (mezzo soprano)
- Nina Achilov (mezzo-sporano)
- Ioana Balasa (flute)
- Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Radu Valcu (guitar)
- Marin Cazacu (cello)
Program 60 minutes (no interlude)
- Claude Debussy – Syrinx: Ioana Balasa (flute)
- Constantijn Huygens – Laetatus Sum: Anne-Marieke Evers (mezzo soprano), Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Bo Linde – O makalosa stjarna (10 Naiva Sanger): Anne-Marieke Evers (mezzo soprano), Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Benjamin Britten (arr.) – The Salley Gardens (Irish Tune): Anne-Marieke Evers (mezzo soprano), Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Catharina van Rennes – Mij spreekt de blomme een tale (Guido Gezelle): Anne-Marieke Evers (mezzo soprano), Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Catharina van Rennes – Als de Ziele luistert (Guido Gezelle): Anne-Marieke Evers (mezzo soprano), Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Reynaldo Hahn – A Chloris: Anne-Marieke Evers (mezzo soprano), Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Maurice Ravel – Piece en forme de Habanere: Ioana Balasa (flute), Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Astor Piazzolla – Histoire du Tango (Bordello 1900, Café 1930, Nightclub 1960, Concert d’Aujourd’hui): Ioana Balasa (flute), Radu Valcu (guitar)
- Giuseppe Verdi – Stride la vampa, from Il Trovatore,
- Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky – Otchevo romance,
- Fernando Obradors – El Vito: Nina Achilov (mezzo-sporano), Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
- Astor Piazzolla – Oblivion: Michèle Ramis (piano), Marin Cazacu (cello)
- Gabriel Fauré – Extraits de la Suite pour piano à quatre mains Dolly (Berceuse, Tendresse): Michèle Ramis, Tudor Scripcariu (piano)
Sponsor
Nina Achilov – contralto
Young graduate of the National University of Music, Nina is a soloist at the Comic Opera House for Children in Bucharest, with roles in The Magic Flute, The Sound of Music and King’s Daughter. Other roles: “La Sphinge” (National Opera Bucharest), Dido, in Purcell’s masterpiece “Dido & Aeneas” (Iasi Athenaeum) and Olga, in “Eugene Onegin” (National University of Music).
Recitals in Greece (Thessaloniki Conservatory), Italy (Athenaeum Hall in Barletta), Bulgaria (Vidin Philharmonic), Lauder-Reut Gala at the Parliament, “George Enescu” Festival Square, “Ion Dumitrescu” Philharmonic in Ramnicu Valcea, “Paul Constantinescu” Philharmonic in Ploiesti, The Art Museum in Constanta, Old Music Festival in Miercurea Ciuc, “George Enescu” Museum in Bucharest, Cultural Centre Arcub, Palace of the National Military Circle, etc.
Vocal-symphonic music: “Stabat Mater” by G. B. Pergolesi, at the Romanian Athenaeum and the “Paul Constantinescu” Philharmonic in Ploiesti. Soloist with “Alexandrov Ensemble”
Tudor Scripcariu – pianist
Tudor Scripcariu was born in 1987 in Bucharest, Romania. He attended the “George Enesco” Musical High School at teacher Mihaela Zamfirescu’s class. During the high school he obtained over 25 national and international prizes including 3 grand prizes at the “Sigismund Toduta”, “Carl Czerny” and “W.A.Mozart” Competitions.
Some of the top prizes achieved were the 2nd prize with silver medal at the “Maryse Cheilan” international Competition- Hyeres – France and the 1st prize with gold medal at the “San Bartolomeo al Mare” international Competition- Italy.
In Romania, Tudor has given many recitals at the Romanian Athenaeum, National Opera – Bucharest, National Opera – Constanta, at the “George Enesco” National Museum, Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca Radio Studios. He has appeared on Romanian Television and at the “Mariana” Academy from Lleida – Spain.
Tudor has been concerto soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestras from Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Satu-Mare, Rm. Valcea and Manchester Camerata.
Between 2007-2010, Tudor studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where his teacher was Helen Krizos. During the first year of study he obtained many prizes. These include 2nd prize with silver medal at the “Moray” Piano Competition – Scotland, together with two major awards for piano accompaniment. In August 2009 Tudor won the Manchester International Concerto Competition.
Tudor has performed in many master classes, including: Andras Schiff, Ian Brown, Stefano Fiuzzi, Nelson Goerner, Alexander Melnikov, Martino Tirimo, Philippe Cassard, Antoin Voigt, Richard Goode, and Graham Scott.
Currently, Tudor is doing his Phd in Music Performance at the National University of Music in Bucharest and is a teacher assistant in the Singing Department of the same university. Since 2015, Tudor is the accompanist pianist of the Comic Opera for Children in Bucharest.
Ioana Balasa
Born in 1989, the Romanian flutist Ioana Bălaşa is currently a member of the “George Enescu” Bucharest Philharmonic. Previously she held the flute position at the “Mihail Jora” Bacău Philharmonic.
As a Principal Flute player she has worked with important conductors including Alexandre Bloch, John Axelrod, Leo Hussein, Cristian Măcelaru and with leading Romanian orchestras as the “Romanian Youth Orchestra” and the “Romanian Royal Camerata”.
Beside the work she has been part of in Romania, she had been invited by maestro Gustav Kuhn to play with Tiroler Festpiele Erl Orchestra in 2016.
She commenced her musical studies in her hometown at the age of 8 and in 2012 she graduated with Bachelor’s Degree the Bucharest National University of Music. During her studies, she has been for one year an Erasmus student at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg under the guidance of Mario Caroli. In the pursuit of developing her flute performance, she attended masterclasses with renowned flutists including Kersten McCall, Walter Auer, Jean-Claude Gerard, Michael Kofler, Erwin Klambauer and many others. Since 2018 she holds a Master Degree in Chamber Music at the Bucharest National Univerity of Music.
Ioana Balaşa has appeared as a soloist from the age of 15 with the “Mihail Jora” Bacău Philharmonic. As a chamber music player she performs in places like the Romanian Atheneum, Suțu Pallace, “Dinu Lipatti” House, “George Enescu” Museum and she is open to new experiences and musical encounters. More recently she is collaborating with Laurențiu Sima on tuba, with whom she founded “Limite” Ensemble, where she plays the piccolo-flute.
The Dutch mezzo soprano Anne Marieke Evers studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. She concentrated afterwards on music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel – Switzerland). She futhered her vocal studies with Mariette Witteveen (NL) and Elizabeth Daniels (USA). At the moment is being coached by Ira Siff (NYC).
In Basel she founded the ensemble Grand Désir with recorder player Anita Orme Della- Marta. This ensemble, that specializes in late medieval and contemporary music, made its debut at the Early Music Festival Utrecht, The Netherlands. They performed in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, France, UK, Switzerland and at Melbourne Early Music Festival (Australia). In July 2009 they won the Friends Prize at the York Early Music Competition. Later that year they released their first CD Danse et Chanson and were invited in the concert serie Network Early Music Utrecht (NL). (www.granddesir.com).
Anne-Marieke is a sought after solist for oratorio repertoire: Bach’s Passions and Magnificat, C.P.E. Bach, Saint Saens, Vivaldi, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Strawinsky.
She sang in opera productions such as Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell in the title role and in L’Enfant et les Sortileges by Maurice Ravel (Tasse Chinoise). She also has a comprehensive Liederrepertoire, inclusive composers as Poulenc (Le Travail du Peintre), Berio (Sequenza III) and Schoenberg (Pierrot Lunaire).
In the USA she was invited as a solist to sing with the Washington Bach Consort (J. Reilly Lewis) and with Bach Sinfonia (Daniel Abraham).
In 2010 Bach Sinfonia released a CD with all motets of J.S. Bach with Anne-Marieke as the alto soloist. In Washington National Cathedral she sang in a solo performance of Bach’s Matthew Passion with 10 singers conducted by Michael McCarthy.
She designed a family concert around an exhibition City Scapes -Dutch cities in the 17th century commissioned by the National Gallery of Art Washington DC, featuring 17th Dutch music. Another family concert was requested around the exhibition on the works of the Dutch painter Gabriel Metsu. where she performed together with the Texas Childrens Choir.
In 2016 she made her debut with the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra (David Shemer, musical director) in a St. Matthew Passion in Jerusalem with 8 singers under the baton of Joshua Rifkin. She sang the role of Arioco in the world premiere of the complete oratorio Nabucco by Michelangelo Falvetti in charge of Myrna Herzog and The Phoenix Ensemble at the 50th Abu Gosh Festival in October 2016. That same year she sang the Christmas Oratorio in Bethlehem.
Welcome Concert to the newly arrived Ambassadors: Therese Hyden (Sweden), Lea Stancic (Slovenia), Roelof Sander van Ees (Netherland), Paul McGarry (Ireland) and Phillipe Henri Pierre Corneil Benoit (Belgium), at the beginning of their mandates in Romania.