RO: Il felicitam pe compozitorul Alexandru Murariu, selectionat din partea sectiunii noastre pentru editia 2025 a Festivalului #WorldMusicDays, Portugalia, cu lucrarea pentru clarinet solo Knots III (2024)!

ENG: We congratulate composer Alexandru Murariu, selected from the part of our section for the 2025 #WorldMusicDays, Portugal, with the solo clarinet piece Knots III (2024)!

BIO:

Born in 1989 in Deva, Alexandru Ştefan MURARIU received his first music lessons at the age of 8. In 2018, after ten years of university studies he graduated the „Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca (Bachelor, Master and PhD degrees) coordinated by Prof. Adrian Pop, an outstanding personality in contemporary music. Since 2016 he is a member of the Romanaian Composers and Musicologists Union with awards in 2017 and 2018. In his recent past, Alexandru Murariu attended several composition contests, earning important national and international awards like the PRIX DE COMPOSITION a la memoire de Nadia Boulanger (2016), and the the „George Enescu” Prize for chamber music in 2014 and for symphonic music in 2018. His work consists in chamber, orchestral and choir music, some of which are published and are regularly performed by several Romanian soloists, choirs and ensembles from Romania, France and Germany.

PROGRAM NOTE:

Knots is inspired by a throat singing technique originated from the northern part of Romania (Maramureș), a subgenre of the „Doină” called „Horea cu noduri”, which translates roughly to „singing in knots”. This piece is a third attempt to transpose into contemporary music this Romanian traditional technique that is slowly disappearing due to its complexity and to its demandingness on singers’ voices. Although it significantly resembles the well-known yodeling technique, its aesthetics and meaning are quite opposite, as the Romanian traditional singing technique is rather used in sad songs.

Selectia completa / complete selection: https://iscm.org/wnmd/2025-portugal/

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