Women, Eternal: A Double Celebration

Join us for a celebration of women’s creativity and ever-surprising beauty in an evening of great music and visual arts. Let’s observe together two of the most beloved traditions of our calendar – the “Mărțișor” and International Women’s Day – with an irresistible program of sing-along classics, from Maria Tănase to Janis Joplin and everything in between, performed by soprano Dika Philosoph, singer-songwriter Cezar Giosan, guitarist Dan Purcea, and violinist Ramon Radosav.

And, as a timely gift, enjoy a sneak preview of “The Atlas of Beauty” Exhibition, opening at the United Nations at the end of March – a fabulous exploration of infinite forms of feminine beauty by photographic sensation Mihaela Noroc.

“Mărțișor”, a diminutive of the Romanian name of the month of March (pronounced [mərt͡siˈʃor]), refers to an old and very popular Romanian tradition of Roman origin and possibly even older. The name is also given to little talismans with red and white strings attached, which are believed to bring good luck and prosperity and are offered by men and children to their mothers, wives, sisters or female friends and colleagues. Like the original Roman celebration, which honored Mars as the god of agriculture, “Mărțișor” heralds the coming of Spring.

Originally a Socialist celebration and later also adopted by the United Nations, International Women’s Day, held on the 8th of March, has gained great popularity in Romania as the very date to honor womanhood and motherhood.

Dika Philosoph is a New York-based opera and pop opera singer whose vocal talent is complemented by an amazing versatility for playing multiple instruments and a no less impressive fluency in several languages. She graduated at the National University of Music in Bucharest and went on to perform the roles of Musetta in “La Bohème” (Puccini) and the Countess Almaviva in “Le nozze di Figaro” (Mozart) in Romania. Later, she joined the Opera Studio of New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, Israel where she sang Pamina in “Die Zauberflote” (Mozart), Countess in “Le nozze di Figaro” (Mozart), Kupava in “The Snow Maiden” (Rimsky-Korsakov), Gretel in “Hansel and Gretel” (Humperdinck). For the New Israeli Opera, Dika performed the role of Barena in “Jenufa” (Janáček). For eight years, she was the lead soprano on the “Sopranos” pop opera show created by composer, conductor and piano player Nansi Brandes. Dika has participated in and sang live on TV and radio shows in Romania and Israel and performed in many concerts in Israel, Romania, Japan, Switzerland, and the United States. She has also worked with great orchestras and conductors like David Stern, George Pehlivanian and Nir Kabaretti.

Multi-talented Cezar Giosan is a Romanian-American singer, songwriter, author and psychology academic. He has released two albums, which include original compositions and carols. His next album, a rock-opera, is due to be out this summer. Besides music, Cezar also writes fiction, one of his novels, The American, having been published in both English and Romanian.

Seasoned musician, active on the Montreal jazz club scene, Dan Purcea is the leader of the Romanian-American alternative folk-rock group The Roadrunners. Attracted by the complexity of jazz-rock, Dan has played with a jazz-rock trio in Montreal and also with a number of pop-rock cover bands in various theaters, clubs and venues in New York and beyond.

Violinist and bass player Ramon Radosav cut his teeth as a musician in the hyper-creative rock milieu of late 80s and 90s Timișoara, Romania, where he performed in several popular bands like Bastion, Cardinal, Amala and, later, the famous Cargo. Ramon moved to the United States in 1998 and is currently a member of groove metal band Kevorkian.

Mihaela Noroc is a world-renowned photographer whose work is shown primarily through her social media projects. She studied Photo-Video at The National University of Arts in Bucharest. In 2012, after several years of work in various other domains, Mihaela decided to focus all her energy on her first love: photography. A trip to Ethiopia, where she discovered incredible feminine faces, inspired her to start shooting “The Atlas of Beauty”, which proved immensely popular and launched her international career. Mihaela’s work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, and the BBC.