I was born in Transylvania into a musical family - my father is a bassoonist and my brother a trumpeter, while my mother is our biggest supporter. It seemed only natural to attend the local music school and after a few not very successful years of playing the piano I asked my dad if I could play the bassoon. He wasn’t too keen on the idea at first but he let me have a go and from there things started moving very fast.
In 2008 I was awarded a Silvestri scholarship, which allowed me to study at the Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh and then the next year I went on to study at St Mary’s Music School. In 2010, I joined the National Youth Orchestra, which was a huge step for me as I got to meet many like-minded teenagers from all over the UK.
With the support of the Phyllis Little Memorial Trust, I spent my undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) learning with John Orford and I’ve now just received my Master of Music with Distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where I’ve studied with Dan Jemison, Helen Storey, Miriam Gussek, Peter Whelan and Dominic Morgan. I am very grateful to my sponsors, the Leverhulme Trust, Sir George Iacobescu and Christof Group. I’ve also been very fortunate to sit in and do numerous side by side projects with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO).
As a soloist, I've performed concerti by Vivaldi, Vanhal, Mozart, Weber, Rossini and Ridout, as well as Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante both in Romania and in the UK. I've also enjoyed performing Dvořák’s Wind Serenade at an LSO Platform concert in the Barbican Hall and Strauss’ Fröhliche Werkstatt at LSO St Luke’s as part of the Sound Unbound Festival.
Some of my favourite performances so far have been playing Sibelius’ Symphony No.2 side by side with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle, Tchaikovsky’s 'Manfred' with Semyon Bychkov while I was at RAM, touring India with the Shillong Chamber Choir and accompanying Nicola Benedetti playing Brahms and Tchaikovsky with the Chipping Campden Festival Youth Academy Orchestra.
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
London, UK
Royal Academy of Music,
London UK
What do you think concerts of the future should look like?
I have a lot of friends who are not musicians and they love coming to my concerts. I think it’s mostly because before I take them to a gig I talk to them about the music that is about to be performed, explain the context in which it was written and try to answer any question they might have. I think it’s very important that we reach out more to audiences that aren’t our regular concert goers and make them feel comfortable about what they are about to listen to. I also think the concerts of the future should focus even more on cross-arts and cross-genre collaborations. Not only it will appeal to a wider network, it also gives musicians the chance to explore new horizons and keeps things fresh.
What do you do with your time when you’re not playing music?
I spend most of my time off in the kitchen. I’m slightly obsessive about cooking and trying new recipes and I find it very therapeutic. I’ve also recently bought a mountain bike and I try to get out in the nature and explore at least every few weeks.