One writer and seven composers explore together seven powerful human affects
Join us online for the last episode of the music & literature series “7 eMotions”, presented by RCI New York in partnership with ISVOR Cultural Association Bucharest, which delves into the complicated inner lives of artists aiming to reveal how their rich panoply of feelings is turned into timeless works of art. Author and cultural journalist Ioana Bâldea Constantinescu and seven contemporary Romanian composers explore seven powerful human affects that define our psychological life and inspire our creativity: disgust, anger, sadness, surprise, contempt, joy, and fear.
The last episode of the series, an original composition by Gabriel Mălăncioiu with Carla Stoleru on flute, deals with the sometimes paralyzing feeling of fear.
Ioana Bâldea Constantinescu graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest, with a specialization in English and Spanish, and a master's degree in American Cultural Studies. From 2001 to 2020, she worked as a journalist at the Romanian Broadcasting Society. She is well known for her interviews with Richard Flanagan, Mathias Énard, Andrew Solomon, David Mitchell, Elizabeth Gilbert, Isabel Allende, Evgheni Vodolazkin, David Lodge, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Care Santos, Sarah Dunant, Alain de Botton, Guzel Yakhina, Jonah Sachs, John Freeman, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Jhumpa Lahiri among others. Since 2019, he has been writing the Off Air editorial for Forbes Life. Ioana Bâldea Constantinescu is also a translator and, most of all, appreciated writer. Her first two novels „Dincolo de portocali” / ”Beyond the Organge Trees” (nominated in 2016 for the Observator Cultural magazine awards) and ”Nautilus” were published by Humanitas Publishing House in 2015 and 2017. In 2019 she published at Nemira Publishing House „Poveste pentru Maria” / ”Story for Maria”, volume nominated, in 2020, for the Writers' Association Awards. Ioana also publish short stories and essays in the anthologies “Selfie” (Arthur Publishing House, 2018) and „Dragă Virginia” / “Dear Virginia” (Black Button Books, 2019). In 2020, Ioana launched her own platform, ioanabaldea.com, and the PLAY podcast, a meeting place for lovers of vintage conversation, with a touch of playfulness typical of 21st century creativity.
The coexistence of intuition and reason in the formation of the composer Gabriel Mălăncioiu (born in 1979 in Brașov) is due to the graduation of both the Faculty of Automatics and Computers and the Faculty of Music and Theater from Timișoara. In addition to the decisive influence of Maestro Remus Georgescu - the one who initiated him in the study of musical composition, during his master's and doctoral studies at the Gheorghe Dima National Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca, he met important personalities such as Cornel Ţăranu, Adrian Pop, Valentin Timaru and Eduard Tereny. Gabriel Mălăncioiu’s music has been presented to audiences on five continents in over 270 concerts, performed by prestigious ensembles such as Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, the Slovenian Chamber Choir or the Aventure ensemble, by performers such as Florian Mueller, Gudrun Hinze or Richard Craig, by conductors such as Michael Wendeberg, Huba Hollókői or Martina Batič. Composer Corneliu Dan Georgescu remarked that Gabriel Mălăncioiu is "one of the most active personalities, a confident and very original voice in the contemporary musical landscape". Gabriel Mălăncioiu is a member of the Union of Romanian Composers and Musicologists, of the Executive Committee of ISCM – Romanian section - and of some international music organizations such as Vox Novus (USA), La Villa des Compositeurs (France/Italy), Temp’ora (France), Access Contemporary Music (USA), Society of Composers (USA). Gabriel Mălăncioiu is currently teaching Modern composition techniques, Orchestration and Musical Analysis at the West University of Timişoara, Faculty of Music and Theater.
Carla-Maria Stoleru is curently a phD student at National University of Music Bucharest, being guided by Dr. Ion Bogdan Stefanescu. During her studies, she approached multiple repertoires from the flute literature, obtaining lots of prizes from important Romanian competitions, like The National Olympic of Music, “The Golden Lyra”, or the Lions European Musical Competition “Thomas Kuti”. Wishing to share her passion for the art of music, and especially for flute, Carla is a flute teacher at the Gymnasium School of Arts “Iosif Sava”. Thanks to her performances, she is now a permanent collaborator of the “George Enescu” Philharmonic Bucharest, and a member of the prestigious Romanian Youth Orchestra. She is also a member of the “Flaut Power” ensemble, and of the contemporary music ensemble, "devotioModerna" with whom she performed in various recitals and festivals.
The artistic team of the project also include: Bogdan Vuluță – music director; Andrei Barbu - sound designer; Florin Ghenade – video director; Irinel Cîrlănaru – photography, editing, color grading; Daniel Ivașcu – graphics; Oana Ivașcu – producer and coordinator.
Project co-funded with the support of AFCN Romania.
Photos - Florin Ghenade / ConnectArts Watch the previous episodes here: Ep. 1 / Disgust Ep. 2 / Anger Ep. 3 / Sadness Ep. 4 / Surprise Ep. 5 / Contempt
Ep. 6 / Happiness