Boldizsár Csíky Jr. - President of the Jury

Born in Reghin on November 25, 1968, he demonstrated remarkable musical abilities from childhood. He attended the Art High School in Târgu Mureș, where he studied under Szőnyi Márta and Ávéd Silló Éva. He continued his education at the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy in Cluj, studying piano under Ileana Prada and Dana Borșan, and composition under Hans Peter Türk. As a student, he won five national piano performance awards, and in 1994, he received the "Cella Delavrancea" prize, awarded by maestro Dan Grigore.

In 1991, he began postgraduate studies with Maestro Jenő Jandó, a professor at the “Franz Liszt” Academy of Music in Budapest. In 1992, he was awarded a scholarship for masterclasses in Lübeck, Germany, where he studied with Professor Lev Naumov. Between 1993 and 1997, he participated in masterclasses with Professor Walter Krafft in Munich. In 1998, on the recommendation of Maestro Dan Grigore, he attended the summer course at Fontainebleau (France), where he studied with professors Gabi Cassadesus, Philippe Bianconi, and Philippe Entremont. In 2000, after numerous collaborations and approximately 40 concerts per year, the music director (Walter Krafft) of the Münchener Musikseminar (Germany) awarded him the title of permanent soloist.

He has performed with all of Romania's symphonic orchestras and has made several recordings, including CDs, as well as radio and TV appearances. He has been invited multiple times to serve as a juror for international piano competitions and has also held masterclasses both in Romania and abroad.

As a performing artist, he has given over 1,000 concerts and recitals in major music centers across Romania and internationally: Austria, England, Bulgaria, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the USA, and Japan.

He has collaborated with world-renowned conductors, including: Erich Bergel, Ion Baciu, Emanuel Elenescu, Emil Simon, Petre Sbârcea, Ludovic Bács, Aczél Ervin, Remus Georgescu, Cristian Mandeal, Horia Andreescu, Ilarion Ionescu-Galați, Sabin Păutza, Gheorghe Costin, Edvard Tschivzhel, Kocsis Zoltán, and others.

He has also worked in various chamber ensembles with acclaimed artists such as Ruha István, Ligeti Diana, Carmen Gurban, Gaetano d´Espinosa, Fenyő László, Rolf Herbrechtsmeyer, Andreas Henkel, Valentin Arcu, Dan Grigore, Jandó Jenő, the Transylvanian Quartet, the Gaudeamus Quartet, the Moscow Trio, and more.

In 2006, he earned a Doctorate in Music with a thesis titled “Stylistic Elements of Pianistic Creation in A. Skriabin – From Post-Romantic to Modern.” He also published the complete three-volume monograph of conductor Erich Bergel. He currently serves as a university professor at the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy in Cluj. His piano students have been awarded prizes at national and international piano competitions, with some already developing significant concert and teaching careers.

Kovács Emőke

Violinist KOVÁCS EMŐKE studied in her hometown of Cluj-Napoca, first at the “Sigismund Toduță” Music High School and later at the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy, in the class of Professor Béres Melinda, where she also completed her master's degree.

Between 1998 and 2000, the violinist was a member of the Hungarian State Opera in Cluj-Napoca, and since 2002, she has been a member of the "Dinu Lipatti" State Philharmonic Orchestra in Satu Mare. Kovács Emőke is also a teacher at the “Aurel Popp” Art High School in Satu Mare, in the violin department.

Throughout her career, she has collaborated with the Hungarian Opera in Cluj-Napoca, the “Sigismund Toduță” Music High School in Cluj-Napoca, the “Escuela Superior de Artes" Yucatan Faculty in Mexico, as well as the Yucatan Symphony Orchestra between 2005 and 2006.

She has participated in numerous masterclasses in Hungary, Germany, and Romania, collaborating with various orchestras both nationally and internationally. She was a member of the "Consonantia" chamber ensemble, the "Diletto Musicale" chamber orchestra, the "Quasi Cosi" trio, and is currently a member of the "FOURever" quartet, giving chamber music concerts both in Romania and abroad.

Since December 2019, she has been the manager of the "Dinu Lipatti" State Philharmonic Orchestra in Satu Mare.

Apolka Bonnyai

Apolka Bonnyai graduated as a pianist from the Liszt Academy of Music in 2001, where her professors were Dénes Várjon, Balázs Szokolay, and András Kemenes, and she obtained her DLA degree in 2013.

In addition to her studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, she participated in masterclasses with András Schiff, Malcolm Bilson, Ferenc Rados, Pavel Gililov, Dmitri Bashkirov, Lev Natochenny, Leslie Howard, and Norma Fisher.

She has won numerous scholarships and international music competitions. As a winner of the Grand Prize Virtuoso and Golden Classical Music Awards international competitions, she performed at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and Carnegie Hall in New York.

As a recipient of the Weingarten Scholarship, she studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Professor Malcolm Bilson, and later at Montclair University in the United States under the guidance of David Witten and Mark Pakman, where she also earned a Performer’s Diploma as a Terplan Research Fellow.

She gave a highly successful concert at the 9th International Music Festival in Kyoto, Japan, which was recorded on CD. Other festival invitations include the Yamaha Artist Liszt Festival, the Hungarian Arts and Humanities Festival in New York, the Budapest Festival Academy, and the Cziffra Piano Festival. She has twice participated in the V4 Piano Festival in Sárospatak, where she also served as artistic director in 2019.

As a soloist, she has performed in prestigious venues such as the Palace of Arts, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wiener Konzerthaus, Mozarteum, Alti Hall, the Subotica Synagogue, Auditorium Maximum, the Palace of Arts, the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy of Music, and many other concert halls across Europe and America. She regularly makes recordings at the Marble Hall of Hungarian Radio.

Since 2001, Apolka Bonnyai has been a piano teacher at the King Saint Stephen Music High School. She regularly serves as a judge for piano competitions and conducts masterclasses both in Hungary and abroad.

She is the founder and artistic director of the Carpathian Basin Classical Music Festival and the Carpathian Basin International Piano Competition.

Radu Postăvaru

Radu Postăvaru was born in Iași into a family of renowned and respected musicians. He graduated from the National University of Music in Bucharest, specializing in composition and conducting, and holds a bachelor's, master's, and PhD in music. He has also participated in various seminars and advanced conducting courses in Germany, France, and Italy.

His teachers include prominent figures from the Romanian and international musical scene, such as Ovidiu Bălan, Horia Andreescu, Ion Baciu, Olaf Koch, Dan Constantinescu, Viorel Munteanu, Vasile Spătărelu, and Dan Buciu.

He has conducted over 1,500 concerts in Romania and abroad, recorded more than 100 studio and live performances as a conductor, composer, and pianist, and has participated in over 300 radio and television broadcasts. His artistic career has been featured in more than 600 specialized articles and reviews in major publications, including Corriere della Sera, Il Giornale, Cultura e spettacoli (Italy), Le Matin, Le temps du Maroc (Morocco), L’Aurore du Jardi (France), Prensa Latina (Spain), Kulturmagazin (Germany), Muzica, Actualitatea Muzicală, and Cronica Română (Romania).

He has produced films and live radio or TV recordings for broadcasters in Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Morocco, the Czech Republic, Algeria, Portugal, and Romania.

Radu Postăvaru is a laureate of several prestigious conducting and composition competitions and festivals both in Romania and abroad, receiving numerous awards and distinctions.

In Romania, he has conducted the philharmonic orchestras of Ploiești, Iași, Bacău, Timișoara, Sibiu, Târgu-Mureș, Brașov, Pitești, Arad, Oradea, Satu-Mare, Craiova, Constanța, and Botoșani, as well as the National Radio Orchestra, the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Romanian Youth Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Chamber Orchestra in Chișinău. Internationally, he has conducted symphony orchestras in Halle (Germany), Grosseto (Italy), Douai (France), Teplice, Hradec Králové, Olomouc (Czech Republic), and Porto (Portugal).

Over the years, Radu Postăvaru has performed and recorded works by great composers, with a particular focus on the creations of Richard Strauss, Franz Liszt, Dmitri Shostakovich, P.I. Tchaikovsky, and Paul Constantinescu. He initiated a concert series titled "The Complete Symphonic Works" of Richard Strauss, with notable performances of the symphonic poems Also Sprach Zarathustra with the National Radio Orchestra in Bucharest, Till Eulenspiegel with the “Mihai Jora” Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Bacău, Don Juan with the “Paul Constantinescu” Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Ploiești, and Don Quixote with the “Moldova” Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Iași.

His recent musical achievements include the performance of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” with the Teplice Symphony Orchestra, Smetana's symphonic poem Vltava with the Hradec-Kralove Symphony Orchestra, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 with the Olomouc Symphony Orchestra, and Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht with the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra.

Radu Postăvaru actively promotes modern and contemporary music in his concerts and has supported young performers throughout his career.

From 2015 to 2020, he was an associate professor specializing in orchestral conducting at the Department of Conducting, Religious Music, and Complementary Instruments in the Faculty of Composition, Musicology, and Music Pedagogy at the National University of Music in Bucharest.

He is currently the principal conductor of the "Paul Constantinescu" Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Ploiești and a guest conductor for prestigious orchestras.

Cristian Lupeș

Conductor Cristian Lupeș, a multidisciplinary cultural figure, is known for his groundbreaking artistic activities and the cultural projects he has created and managed over time. Werner Schulze, composer and professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and conducting professor of Maestro Kirill Petrenko, considers that "the name Cristian Lupeș is synonymous with the total success guarantee for contemporary music interpretations."

Born in Onești, Lupeș first studied Physics and Chemistry at Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj) and the University of Bucharest. In 1999, he began studying at the National University of Music in Bucharest (UNMB) and, in 2012, earned a PhD in music from UNMB with the thesis "Scientific Parameters of Interpretation." He pursued master's courses at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2004 and 2005. In 2010, he became assistant conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker Staatsphilharmonie, working with Jonathan Nott, and also assisted at Tonhalle Zurich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Rundfunk Berlin Orchestra, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. He collaborated with and assisted conductors such as Cristian Mandeal, Alexandre Myrat, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, David Zinman, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Andris Nelsons, Vladimir Jurowski, and Herbert Blomstedt.

Cristian Lupeș always knew he would be a conductor. He grew up listening to contemporary music and the birds that George Enescu also listened to in Tescani. These experiences shaped the pillars of his artistic work: a deep attachment to Romanian music, especially that of George Enescu, along with the energy, revolutionary spirit, courage, and innovation of contemporary music. In his career, he consistently promotes modern and contemporary Romanian values, believing, like Enescu, in the importance of music for a healthy cultural life. With courage and skill, he brings to the public rarely performed works on Romanian stages, and the response is enthusiastic every time.

Cristian Lupeș is the artistic director of Romania's first new music festival, founded by his professor Liviu Dănceanu in 1986, and the initiator of the newest festival of its kind, Brave New Music.

He is a regular guest at the George Enescu International Festival, collaborating with ensembles such as Deutschekammer Philharmonie Bremen, Orchestre Île-de-France, the Bucharest Festival Orchestra, the Sibiu Philharmonic, and the “Mihail Jora” Philharmonic in Bacău, as well as the Royal Camerata. His recordings of modern, contemporary, and Romanian music are considered benchmarks, often sent as interpretation models to orchestras invited to the George Enescu Festival.

His perseverance and passion for music have brought him to the stages of philharmonics since his student years. He collaborates with orchestras in Romania and abroad, most recently with Deutschekammer Philharmonie Bremen. He has worked with artists such as Elisabeth Leonskaja, Michael Barenboim, Arabella Steinbacher, Julien Libeer, Francesco Tristano, Vassilis Varvaressos, Constantin Basica, Marcel Iureș, Sorin Petrescu, Grigore Leșe, Antal Zalay, and many others.

Since August 2019, he has been the manager of the State Philharmonic of Sibiu. His managerial vision has been recognized through the distinction awarded to the Sibiu Philharmonic, the Order of Cultural Merit in the rank of Commander, by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis.

Petruț Constantinescu

A graduate in arts from the National University of Music in Bucharest, class of 1999, Petruț Constantinescu is a laureate of several competitions (piano, chamber music) and festivals, where he has performed over time both as a pianist and an accompanist. After completing his university studies, he debuted in the Euphonia Academic Choir of the “Ion Dumitrescu” Philharmonic, participating in several tours in Romania and abroad, accompanying both the choir and the orchestra in major vocal-symphonic works on multiple occasions.

His solid training, proficiency in several foreign languages, diverse skills, and professionalism acquired during his studies enabled him to secure the position of musical secretary of the Vâlcea Philharmonic through competition from 2001 to 2011.

Passionate about the private sector and administrative and tourism management, he stepped away from the philharmonic world for several years to pursue postgraduate studies in administration and tourism management, earning a master's degree in public administration and tourism management, while maintaining close ties to the musical field, which he still considers complementary to cultural education and elite tourism.

In 2018, he achieved the highest rating in the competition for the position of manager of the “Ion Dumitrescu” Philharmonic in Râmnicu Vâlcea, which he manages with professionalism and passion. The results of this institution have been notable both in Romania and abroad, establishing important cultural connections and relationships in recent years, laying solid groundwork for this emblematic institution of Râmnicu Vâlcea Municipality to pursue continuous and natural growth.

He is a founding member of the AMF – Association of Philharmonic Managers, which became AMFOR (Association of Opera and Philharmonic Managers in Romania) in 2024, alongside seven other managers of philharmonics in Romania. The association was established in 2021 (currently, there are 26 managers of philharmonics and operas), and it has already achieved several historic accomplishments for musical institutions in Romania. He has also been a member of the Rotary Club in Râmnicu Vâlcea for over 15 years, an organization with which he is involved in educational, social, and, of course, cultural projects.

György Levente

György Levente, manager of the Târgu Mureș State Philharmonic, studied double bass at the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca from 1995 to 2000. Later, starting in 2011, he furthered his studies in Switzerland, benefiting from a Pro Basso scholarship. As a vocal artist and opera soloist, he trained at prestigious institutions, including the Hochschule der Künste in Bern under the guidance of Professor Elisabeth Glauser, as well as at the Schweizer Operastudio. Additionally, he obtained a diploma in orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich under Marc Kissoczy.

Since 2005, he has received a scholarship from the Tonkünstlerverein in Lausanne and won the Migros Kulturprozent singing competition in Zurich, which allowed him to obtain an additional scholarship for further studies. He has had the privilege of being mentored by masters of lyrical art such as Nicolai Gedda, Francisco Araiza, Hans Peter Blochwitz, László Polgár, Cornelia Kallisch, and Lani Poulson.

His debut on the Swiss stage took place at the Biel-Solothurn Theater, where he was an invited soloist for five years. Between 2011 and 2020, he performed as a soloist at the Theater für Niedersachsen in Hildesheim, Germany. His repertoire is vast, encompassing over 60 roles from operas and operettas by renowned composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Smetana, J. Strauss, Offenbach, Puccini, Ravel, and Martinů. He also successfully approaches the vocal-symphonic genre, performing particularly significant solo roles.

With extensive experience in the musical field and artistic performances, György Levente is a dedicated professional with an impressive career that combines artistic talent with management skills, making a significant contribution to the promotion of quality music.

Participation fee

The Participation fee is of 50 euros/250 RON, payable with the competitor’s complete nameand mentioning « Targu Mures - Marosvasarhely 2024 ». If the fee is not paid, the application isn’t valid. When applying the competitors will upload a valid ID, this being used only for awarding prizes, with the protection of the personal data of the Competitors.

Any problem linked to the payment is on behalf of the applicant. In case of passing the application deadline the acceptance of the Competitor is at the latitude of the jury president.

The Competition Fee is to be paid in the accounts ::

Account Holder: Asociatia Ansamblul Baroc Transylvania

IBAN RON RO40BTRL01301205920774XX

IBAN EURO RO14BTRLEURCRT0092077404

SWIFT: BTRLRO22

The competition fee is non-refundable, except when the Competition doesn’t take place, in which case the refunding will take place in a delay of maximum 30 days from the cancellation announcement. If the fee isn’t paid, the application will not be valid.

Judging

The competitors evaluation will be made by the Jury, and the final mark results from the individual marks of the Jury members. The Jury’s decisions can not be contested, but the competitors are welcome to ask a personal opinion from members of the Jury.

General statements

The Competitors and their tutors give up totally and without exceptions any claims regarding audio-video recordings made throughout the entire Competition (including rehearsals, auditions and any other activities connected to the Competition), and pass the Organizer unrestricted rights of using these materials, following the laws and regulations valid in Romania and the European Community concerning the protection of personal data.

Each competitor will fill in and sign (through parents/legal representatives, if needed) a form that will allow the competition Secretary to use any personal data, photos and other audio-video materials. Nonfilling this form invalidates the application form without refunding the participation fee.

By the application fact the Competitor accepts all the rules of the competition, without any exceptions.

The jury is composed of eminent international professors and artists, whose integrity is guaranteed by their professional and artistic background. The organizers, together with the Jury members, commit to ensuring a competition environment free of conflicts of interest, namely to avoid situations where a Jury member might evaluate their own pupil or student.

The jury president may, in agreement with the Organizer, partially modify the provisions of these Regulations until the start of the competition, with immediate announcement of the changes on the Competition's website. It is the responsibility of the participants to follow the website to stay informed about the announcements posted regarding the Competition.

Registration

The candidates registration will be realized via the following link:

https://forms.gle/oq4WFcvHnHBn5oav5

Deadline: 2nd of december 2024

Contact

targumurespianocompetition@gmail.com

The piano used in the 2023 edition: Yamaha CFX (2023 model), provided by Yamaha Music Europe and Soundcreation.

• Winners of the 2022 edition

  First prize: Voropciuc Maria Izabela, shared with Fediurko Roman

  Second prize: Do Vale Ventura De Sousa Nuno Miguel

• In the 2022-2023 season, Roman Fediurko and Izabela Voropciuc were soloists in two concerts with the Târgu-Mureș State Philharmonic. Roman performed the A minor Concerto by Robert Schumann, and Izabela the 1st Concerto by Frédéric Chopin.

Bösendorfer 280VC

News

- the piano used for the 2022 edition of the Competition, offered by Yamaha Music Europe (soundcreation.ro) -