INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT

The programmes initiated by the International Relations Department are designed mainly for the foreign cultural milieu and are meant to complement the activity of the Romanian Cultural Institutes abroad in order to help create a comprehensive and relevant picture of the Romanian cultural offer.
The International Relations Department focuses on large scale programmes (tours, series of events, multi-art festivals and projects dedicated to Romanian culture, inter-disciplinary events) run in partnership with local cultural entities, so as to ensure access to prime quality venues and to guarantee maximum exposure and impact to the cultural products thus promoted. All programmes are designed and carried out in close cooperation both with Romanian partners (institutions, cultural operators, and cultural actors) and with foreign partners.

Contact:

International Relations Department
Romaian Cultural Institute
38 Aleea Alexandru
011824 Bucharest
Romania
Tel. +40 31 7100 671
Fax. +40 31 7100 661
www.icr.ro


The team:
Ariadna Ponta – director
tel. +40 31 7100 604
e-mail. or.rci@atnop.andaira

Irina Iacob – programme manager
tel. +40 31 7100 671
e-mail. or.rci@bocai.aniri

Doina Ovedenie – programme manager
tel. +40 31 7100 666
e-mail. or.rci@einedevo.aniod

Bogdan Iacob – programme manager
tel. +40 31 7100 619
e-mail. or.rci@bocai.nadgob

Rodica Şerban – programme manager
tel. +40 31 7100 671
e-mail. or.rci@nabres.acidor


PROJECTS 2011


MUSIC

Arcadia Quartet at the Brancoveanu Palace, Mogosoaia
March 20
Up and coming Romanian string quartet from Cluj-Napoca, Arcadia were invited, for the second year, to perform in the series of concerts hosted by the Brancoveanu Palace at Mogosoaia.


Sistem @ Fiestas de la Ascensión, Santiago de Compostela
June 3
Following the 2010 collaboration with the Santiago de Compostela City Hall a new event featuring Romanian artists was included in one of the traditional open-air festivals in the Spanish city.
The band, made up of highly skilled professional percussionists, offered the large audience one of their typical performances consisting of music parts for metal and plastic barrels and complete with special effects.
Partner: Santiago de Compostela City Hall


Workshops for young musicians in Montepulciano and Arezzo
June 5 – 12, 13 – 22
16 young and talented Romanian musicians had the oportunity to study for a week under the guidance of internationally reputed instrumentalists in the unique atmosphere of Tuscan cities of Montepulciano and Arezzo. The workshops, organized by the SoNoRo Association and the Romanian Cultural Institute, were hosted by the “Palazzo Ricci” European Academy in Montepulciano and the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo. Tutors: Diana Ketler (piano), Royal Academy of Music Londra, Sergey Malov (violin), Universität der Künste Berlin, Răzvan Popovici (viola), Ensemble Raro, Erich Oskar Hütter (cello), Ensemble Hyperion Salzburg, David Cohen (cello), Conservatoire de Bruxelles and Corinne Chapelle (violin), San Francisco.


FESTIVAL SoNoRo @ AREZZO
June 14-20
Already an established brand in Romania, the SoNoRo music chamber festival went abroad. The first edition in Arezzo took place between 14-20 June in prestigious locations around the Tuscan city: Oratorio Santi Pergentino e Lorentino, San Domenico, Cortile del Palazzo Comunale. Special guests Enrico Bronzi (cello) and Alessio Benvenutti (violin) joined the tutors and students of the SoNoRo Interference masterclass for a series of concerts that won over the Italian audience.


Music fusion project in Zagreb – Anton Pann meet Capisconne electro unity
July 2 – 9
Old music ensemble Anton Pann and Croatian experiemental jazz band Capiscone Electro Unity (led by well-known Croatian jazz composers, guitar player Ivan Kapec) met for a week in Zagreb to work together on a music fusion project. The presented the outcome of this joint venture in a concert hosted by the Kino Studio in Zagreb on July 9.


ICR Chamber Music Season at the Athenaeum
October – December
The 2011 edition of the ICR Chamber Music Season at the Athenaeum brings to Bucharest three foreign chamber ensembles, with programmes including Romanian compositions.
On October 18, clarinetist Michael Collins, who also performed in an exceptional concert alongside the Belcea Quartet on the Athenaeum scene in 2008, returns, accompanied by the quintet he leads - London Winds, one of the most important wind ensembles in the world.
Ten Tors Orchestra from the UK (conductor Simon Ible), the protagonist of Shadows of Romania music festival in Plymouth in November 2010, makes its debut on November 22 at the Romanian Athenaeum in the company of extraordinary soloists Ladislau Csendes (viola), Sorin Matei (percussion), Alexandru Rotaru (percussion) and Florian Mitrea (piano).
The last concert on December 7 brings to Bucharest a long awaited musical project: Istanbul. Dimitrie Cantemir - Jordi Savall, Montserrat Figueras, Hespèrion XXI and musicians invited from Turkey.


Enesco-Re-Imagined by Lucian Ban & John Hébert at festivals in Europe and the USA
October – November
After a pair of successful launches in Bucharest (September 2010, Odeon Theatre) and New York (November 2010, Poisson Rouge), Enesco Re-Imagined embarks on a tour of major venues and festivals on both sides of the Atlantic.
The project conceived by Romanian born jazz pianist Lucian Ban and American bassist extraordinaire John Hébert as a celebration and a contemporary jazz re-imagination of the works of the great Romanian composer has gathered praising reviews in all major music magazines and made it onto the “Best of 2010” lists of the Jazz Journalists Association.
Fall 2011 concert calendar:
October 19 – Mayne Stage Theater, Chicago, SUA
October 20 – EDGEFEST Festival, Ann Arbor Michigan, SUA
November 21 – The Sage, Newcastle, Marea Britanie
November 22 – DeWerf, Bruges, Belgia


Horia Maxim (piano) & Mario Caroli (flute) recitals
November 29, 30
Romanian pianist Horia Maxim and Italian Mario Caroli (flute) pair up for 2 extraordinary recitals in Bari and Rome, with a programme featuring Romanian compositions. The events will be hosted by Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari (29 November) and Giardini dell’Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Salla Casella, in Rome (30 November).
Programme: J. S. Bach, Sonata in G minor BWV 1020, F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Sonata in F minor op. 4, G. Enescu, ''Cantabile et Presto'', D. Rotaru, ''Crystals'', A. Jolivet, ''Chant de Linos''.
A CD signed Horia Maxim and Mario Caroli is scheduled for release early 2012.



CONFERENCES

Andrei Pleșu & Adam Michnik @ The Romanian Athenaeum
February 14
A lively and thought-provoking dialogue between Andrei Plesu and Adam Michnik on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum, part of the Athenaeum Conferences series.
Partners: „George Enescu” Philharmonic, Polish Institute


Flowers / Fleurs / Flores international conference in Lisbon
September 6-9, Lisbon and Ponte de Lima
Co-organized by the Centre of Excellence for the Study of Cultural Identity, the The Centro de História da Cultura at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and the Romanian Cultural Institute, the international multidisciplinary conference brings together academics, scholars and free lance colleagues from philological and cultural studies to cultural anthropology, from history of ideas to material culture, from visual arts to art history and so forth, in an interdisciplinary and intercultural attempt to look into the multifarious beauty, the inexhaustible symbolism and the endless benefits which flowers have bestowed upon humans.


International conference Literature and the Long Modernity
Central University Library, Bucharest
November 10 – 12

Following the 13-14 November, 2009 and the 2-4 December, 2010 international interdisciplinary conferences organized under the aegis of our comprehensive interdisciplinary project entitled The Cultural Institution of Literature from Early to Late Modernity in British Culture, the Centre of Excellence for the Study of Cultural Identity (University of Bucharest), together with the Romanian Cultural Institute and the New Europe College, are organizing an international interdisciplinary conference on Literature and the Long Modernity.

The event comes in the track of papers, debates and the publications ensuing from the previous two conferences and will focus on literature in its disciplinary separation from ‘literature’. The interdisciplinary nature of our approaches to the matter will be one of its strengths, with debates encouraged on such issues as configurations of epistemological, social and institutional spaces, constructions of the identity of cultural actors associated with the phenomenon called literature, the actual, factual and symbolic passage from ‘literature’ to literature in the Long Modernity, Period Studies views of literature and modernity, Early Modernity and the rise of literature in our acceptation of the term, Classic Modernity and institutionalized literature, High Modernity and ‘mechanical reproducibility’, Late Modernity and protocols of revisiting/revising literature; transformations in the institution of literature along the Long Modernity; for an integrated history of the phenomenon called literature.

Participants: Linda Hutcheon - University of Toronto (Canada), Michael Mckeon - Rutgers University (USA), Patrick Hayes - St. John’s College, Oxford (UK), Jean-Michel Rabaté - University of Pennsylvania (USA), Clifford Siskin - NYU & NY Public Library (USA), Eve Patten - Trinity College, Dublin (Ireland), Andrew Sanders – Durham University (UK), Charles Moseley – Cambridge University (UK), Flavio Gregory (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia (IT), Shobhana Bhattacharji – Jesus and Mary College, New Dehli (India), Mihaela Irimia – University of Bucharest.


Ideological Storms: Intellectuals and the Totalitarian Temptation – international conference in Washington D.C.
November 14-15
Romanian Cultural Institute in cooperation with the Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies (under the directorship of Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu) at the University of Maryland (College Park), the Cold War International History Project (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), Georgetown University (CERES), and the Embassy of Romania in the US are organizing the conference Ideological Storms: Intellectuals and the Totalitarian Temptation,
This event is the fifth in a series of conferences jointly organized by these institutions over the past four years, including ”Stalinism Revisited: The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe and the Dynamics of the Soviet Bloc” (November 29-30, 2007), “Promises of 1968: Crisis, Illusions and Utopia” (November 6-7, 2008), “The End and the Beginning: The Revolutions of 1989 and the Resurgence of History” (November 9-10, 2009), Remembrance, History, and Justice: Coming to Terms with Traumatic Pasts in Democratic Societies (November 10-11, 2010).
The organizers wish to create a thematical framework that will provide an overview of the main issues raised by the temptation of the extremes in the 20th century and their imapct upon the contemporary world. The conference will be a forum for discussing political passions, radicalism, utopian ideals, and their catastrophic consequences in the twentieth century’s experiments of massive social engineering. The event will chart the map of and explain what Hannah Arendt called “the ideological storms” of a century second to none in terms of violence, hubris, ruthlessness, and human sacrifices.Following the practice of the past four conferences, the organizers wish to integrate the case of Romania within the larger discussion of the role of intellectuals and their relationship with fascism, communism, and nationalism.
Among the participants are: Mark Lilla (Columbia University); Annette Wieviorka (CNRS); Richard Wolin (City University of New York); Michael Scammell (Columbia University); Michael David-Fox (Georgetown University); Jeffrey Isaac (University of Indiana in Bloomington); Dennis Deletant (Georgetown University); Jan Werner Mueller (Princeton University); Jeffrey Wasserstrom (University of California Irvine), etc.



THEATRE

Ruins True directed by Tompa Gabor @ Avignon OFF
July 2 – 29
Ruins True is a collective dance creation, in the spirit of Samuel Beckett’s work, and emerged as a co-production between the Sushi Center for the Urban Arts in San Diego and the Hungarian Theatre in Cluj-Napoca.
No less than 21 performances will be hosted by the Théâtre des Halles between 3 and 29 July, under the auspices of the prestigious Avignon OFF Festival.


VISUAL ARTS

Romanian Contemporary Art @ Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne
December 2011 – January 2011
The Romanian exhibitions presented at the 2010 edition of the European Contemporary Art Fair in Strasbourg by the ICR and Apollonia Cultural Association will travel to St. Etienne (Musée d’Art Moderne, December 2011 – January 2012) and Liège (La Châtaigneraie - Centre Wallon d'Art Contemporain, January – February 2012).
The exhibitions „Transitions urbaines“ and „Multi-pli-cité“ (curator Irina Cios) and „De Manaki à aujourd’hui“ (curator Erwin Kessler) showcase the works of Dan Acostioaei, Lucian Alexe, Irina Botea, Alexandra Croitoru, Călin Dan, Cristina David, Cristian Ionescu, Iosif Kiraly, Luminitza Liboutet, Claudiu Lucaci, Andrei Mateescu, Eliza Mureşan, Roxana Trestioreanu.


MULTIART

Romanian performing arts weekend @ Peninsula Arts, University of Plymouth
November 25 – 27
The launch of the 3rd series of translations from Romanian published by University of Plymouth Press is also the occasion for a series of performing arts events focusing on Romanian contemporary theatre and dance.
Following the Romanian film retrospective and contemporary art exhibition (November 2009) and the Shadows of Romania music festival (November 2010), this year’s selection of events comes to introduce the British audience and especially students in the university city of Plymouth to contemporary Romanian performing arts, through performances, workshops and presentations.

The book launch
The 3rd series of translations features Mircea Cartarescu’s Why We Love Women, Nicolae Manolescu’s Wasted Morning, Ion Muresan’s The Book of Winter and Other Poems and Razvan Petrescu’s Small Changes in Attitude.
Nicolae Manolescu and Ion Muresan, together with critic Luminita Marcu, will attend the book launch.
Hosted by Rosie Goldsmith (BBC journalist and presenter, Open Book). A reading of selected book passages, will be undertaken by the Romanian actress, Cristina Catalina.

Events Calendar:
Friday & Saturday November 25 & 26
- Romanian Theatre Photo Exhibition in Crosspoint RLB

Friday November 25
- theatre critis Cristina Modreanu – presentation on Romanian theatre today, in Jill Craigie Cinema
- Book Launch and opening Festival reception in Crosspoint RLB
- Student rehearsed reading Crosspoint RLB
- Theatre performance :'First You're Born' by Line Knutzon, directed by Radu Afrim, Andrei Muresanu Theatre in Sf. Gheorghe: Theatre 1 RLB

Saturday November 26
- Dance performance and installation - ' I am myself' by dancer/choreographer Cosmin Manolescu : This is a durational performance and audience are invited to come and go as they wish during this period. The piece will be performed in the Room situated in crosspoint in RLB
- Stage 2 BA Dance Theatre students will perform choreographic material generated from the dance residency with Cosmin Manolescu in crosspoint RLB
- Cosmin Manolescu Lecture Presentation on Contemporary Romanian Dance Today




PROJECTS 2010


Ensemble RARO & SoNoRo Festival on Tour
February 16, March 26

The Romanian Cultural Institute and the SoNoRo Association present two chamber music concerts at Carnegie Hall, New York and Wigmore Hall, London, included in the project Ensemble RARO & SoNoRo Festival on Tour.

February 16 / New York / Carnegie Zankell Hall
Ensemble RARO
Alexander Sitkovetsky – violin
Bernhard Naoki Hedenborg – cello
Diana Ketler – piano
Răzvan Popovici – viola
Roxana Constantinescu – soprano

Robert Schumann, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47
George Enescu, Sept chansons de Clèment Marot
Pēteris Vasks, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47


March 26 / London / Wigmore Hall
Ensemble RARO
Alexander Sitkovetsky – vioin
Adrian Brendel – cello
Diana Ketler – piano
Răzvan Popovici – viola
Roxana Constantinescu – soprano

George Enescu, Sept chansons de Clèment Marot
Richard Strauss, Selected Songs
Robert Schumann, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47
Pēteris Vasks, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47



Arcadia Quartet @ Mogosoaia Palace
May 2

Arcadia Quartet from Cluj to perform at the Mogosoaia Palace, a concert included in the series „Music at Brancoveanu’s Palace”, second edition.
The four members of the Arcadia Quartet studied with the Belcea quartet between 2007-2009 as part of the residency at the Romanian Athenaeum.
Programme: Robert Schumann, Quartets op. 41 no. 1 and no. 3
Partner: Centrul Cultural Palatele Brancovenesti


3rd edition of the Summerschool for Young Quartets @ Tescani
July 7 – 14

5 young quartets from music academies in Bucharest, Cluj and Kishinev spent 8 days at the George Enescu memorial house in Tescani studying under the guidance of the reputed Belcea Quartet (London). The project started back in 2008 alongside the Belcea’s residence at the Romanian Athenaeum.
Participants: Attaca Quartet and Renaissance Quartet (Bucharest), Tetarto Quartet and Eufonia Quartet (Cluj), Unistring Quartet (Kishinev).
Partner: George Enescu National Museum



SoNoRo Interferente in Montepulciano
July 11 – 18

Young Romanian musicians attended the workshop hosted by European Academy for Music and Arts „Palazzo Ricci“ in Montepulciano. During one week they studied with first-class international musiciansNatalia Lomeiko (violin), Diana Ketler (piano), Răzvan Popovici (viola) and Erich Oskar Hütter (cello).
The workshop is part of the 2010 edition of SoNoRo Interferente, which also included 2 summer schools in Romania.
Partner: SoNoRo Association



Etno-jazz concerts at the Fiestas del Año Xacobeo in Santiago de Compostela
July 29 – 31

Well-known etno-jazz groups Nightlosers and Trigon performed in front of a huge crowd in two open-air concerts in Santiago de Compostela, as part of the festival celebrating Saint James’ Day.
Young actors Andreea Paduraru and Mihai Baranga delighted the audience with their non-verbal theatre performance “Flirtation”.
Partner: Santiago de Compostela City Hall



The National Radio Orchestra @ World Expo Shanghai
July 29

The National Radio Orchestra performed in a gala concert held on Romania’s Day at the World Expo in Shanghai. The concert programme included Romanian, Chinese and international orchestra works. Conductors: Tiberiu Soare and Jin Wang. Soloists: Alexandru Tomescu (violin) and Horia Mihail (piano).
The Romanian Cultural Institute supported the event, in partnership with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.



Ulpiu Vlad anniversary concert
September 18

The rich and distinguished carreer of composer Ulpiu Vlad was celebrated through an anniversary concert in Wuppertal, Germany, by new-music ensemble Partita Radicale (Thomas Beimel / viola, Uwe Fischer-Rosier / percussion, Gunda Gottschalk / violin, Ortrud Kegel / flute, Karola Pasquay / flute, Ute Vőlker / accordion) and pianist Roman Vlad.
The long-standing collaboration between Partita Radicale and Ulpiu Vlad has resulted in numerous concerts in France, Germany and Romania, as well as recordings edited by Sonoton Pro Viva (Germany).



Enesco-Re-Imagined by Lucian Ban & John Hébert @ Odeon Theatre, Bucharest
September 22

Inspired by and dedicated to the work of 20th century classical genius George Enescu, Enesco Re-Imagined was conceived by Romanian born jazz pianist Lucian Ban and American bassist extraordinaire John Hébert as a celebration and a contemporary jazz re-imagination of the works of the great Romanian composer. Featuring an A list of New York most celebrated jazz musicians – Ralph Alessi, Tony Malaby, Gerald Cleaver, Mat Maneri, Albrecht Maurer and Indian tabla legend Badal Roy – the album was released to critical acclaim by the award winning Sunnyside Records in NYC.
In 2011 and 2012 the ensemble will tour major venues and festivals on both sides of the Atlantic.



Orestia II – Choephorele by Aurel Stroe on tour in Germany, Switzerland and France
October 10 – 16

The first ever production of Aurel Stroe’s Orestia II since the one-off staging by Lucian Pintilie at the Avignon Festival in 1979 was put on by the „Banatul” Philharmonic in Timisoara (conductor Radu Lupu, director Ioana Stoianov) and performed in Mannheim (Freie Hochschule für Anthroposophische Pädagogik), Basel (Dornach Goetheanum) and Paris (Conservatoire de Gennevilliers).
Partners: „Banatul” Philharmonic and host venues



The RCI Chamber Music Season at the Athenaeum
October – December

Following the success of the three-year residency of the Belcea Quartet at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, the first ever programme of its kind in Romania, a new series of musical events was devised aiming to bring foreign musicians and Romanian composers closer together. The first season, autumn 2010, featured 3 concerts that brought to the most prestigious musical stage in Bucharest young Romanian musicians who now live and perform abroad and their guests, with programmes that included Romanian works.
Partners: George Enescu Philharmonic, National Music Academy Bucharest

October 19
ConTempo Quartet (Bogdan Sofei – violin, Ingrid Nicola – violin, Andreea Banciu – viola,
Adrian Mantu – cello) & Timo Kinnunen (accordion – Finland)
The programme included the Romanian premiere of Maya Badian’s „Music in Square” and George Crumb’s „Black Angels”, as well as the world premiere of Latvian Anna Veissmane’s „Why Me?”

November 23
Matei Varga (piano) & Ben Schoeman (piano – South Africa)
An outstanding performance by celebrated New-York based pianist Matei Varga and the even younger South African Ben Schoeman. Two piano and four hands works by Schubert, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Ravel and Lipatti.

December 18
Clara Cernat (violin) and Thierry Huillet (piano, composition) & their guests:
Mirabela Dina (Germany) – piano, Philippe Spiesser (France) – percussion, Aliaz Begus (Slovenia) – clarinet, Sandrine Tilly (France) – flute, Lucille Duran (France) – violin, Damien Ventula (France) – cello, Aida Carmen Soanea (Germany) – viola, Petre Iuga (Germany) – double bass.
A festive concert featuring Romanian violinist Clara Cernat and French pianist and composer Theirry Huillet and their guests, including the Romanian premiere of Thierry Huillet’s arrangement of Ciprian Porumbescu’s Ballad and his very own „Forest Carnival”.



Enesco Re-Imagined American album launch
November 2, Le Poisson Rouge, NY

The widely acclaimed Enesco Re-Imagined by Lucian Ban & John Hébert editted by Sunnyside Records had its American launch at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, before embarking on a world tour.
Partner: Sunnyside Records



5th SoNoRo Festival, Bucharest
November 6

In partnership with the 2010 SoNoRo Festival, under the heading „Un Ballo in Maschera”, the RCI presented a concert by Ensemble RARO and their guests, featuring works by Carl Maria von Weber, Niccólo Paganini, Dan Dediu and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Animal Carnival.



International Conference Remembrance, History, and Justice: Coming to Terms with Traumatic Pasts in Democratic Societies
November 11 – 12, Washington D.C.

The 4th in a series of conferences organized in partnership with Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars din Washington DC and the Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies (University of Maryland).
Participants: Norman Naimark, Daniel Chirot, Tymothy Snyder, Darius Stola, Vladimir Petrovic, Lavinia Stan, Ian-Werner Muller, Istvan Rev, Nikolai Vukov, Leonidas Donskis, Charles Villa-Vicencio, Annette Wieviorka, Jeffrey Herf, Stephen Kotkin, Vladimir Tismăneanu, Cristian Vasile, Igor Casu, Alexandru Gussi.
The papers presented at the conference will be collected in a volume published by CEU Press.



The volume Promises of 1968: Crisis, Illusion, and Utopia to be launched at the AAASS convention in Los Angeles
November 18 – 20

The papers presented at the 2008 conference Promises of 1968: Crisis, Illusion and Utopia hels in Washington D.C. were collected in a volume published by CEU Press (editor Vladimir Tismaneanu) and will be launched at the 2010 convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) in Los Angeles.



The Music of Shaun Davey – A Romanian Journey @ St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin
November 27

Irish composer Shaun Davey’s concert work Voiced from the Merry Cemetery, inspired by the epitaphs in the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, was performed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin by the Irish National Radio Orchestra (conductor David Brophy) and the male choir of the Theology Faculty in Sibiu (conductor Sorin Dobre), featuring soloists Rita Connolly (vocal), Liam O’Flynn (uilleann pipes/pan flute) and their guests, Gerry O'Beirne (guitar), Noel Eccles (solo percussion), David Leigh (keyboard) şi Eóin Ó Beaglaioch (concertina/accordion).
Partner: Irish National Radio (RTE)


Author(ity) And The Canon between Institutionalization And Questioning:
Literature From High To Late Modernity
International interdisciplinary Conference
November 2 – 4, New Europe College

This outstanding academic event looks into 19th -20th century developments in literature, while the preceding conference, held in December 2009, focused on Early and Classic Modernity under the title Imitato- Inventio: the Rise of „Literature” from Early to Classic Modernity.
The keynote speaker of the conference was Prof. Hayden White, who also received the title „doctor honoris causa” from the University of Bucharest.
Participants: Mihaela Irimia (University of Bucharest), Donald R. Kelley (Rutgers University), Bonnie Smith (Rutgers University), Stephen Prickett (Glasgow University), Patricia Erskine-Hill (independent scholar), Andrew Sanders (Durham University), Patricia Waugh (Durham University), Angela Locatelli (Bergamo University), Marina Dossena (Bergamo University), Marek Wilczyńsk (Gdansk University), Ludmilla Kostova (Veliko Tarnovo University), Christoph Ehland (Universität Paderborn), Ivan Lupić (Columbia University), Francesca Orestano (Università degli Studi di Milano), Jukka Tiusanen (University of Vaasa, Finland).
Partners: Centre of Excellence for the Study of Cultural Identity, University of Bucharest and New Europe College.



Romanian art @ the 15th European Contemporary Art Fair in Strasbourg
November 2 – 30

A series of exhibitions of contemporary art, photography and video installations, reunited under the titles e.cités Bucarest and Rencontrer l’Europe – Roumanie mark the Romanian presence at the 15th edition of the European Contemporary Art Fair In Strasbourg, a partnership between the RCI and the Apollonia Cultural Association in Strasbourg.
Transitions urbaines (curator Irina Cios) | Bucarest, l’entre deux guerres (curator Mihai Oroveanu) | De Manaki à aujourd’hui (curator Erwin Kessler) | Multi-pli-cité (curator Irina Cios) | artist residence (Irina Botea and Calin Dan)
Partner: Apollonia Cultural Association



Shadows of Romania @ Peninsula Arts, Plymouth
November 19 – 21

The second series of translations from Romanian published by Plymouth University Press was launched in the presence of the authors: No Way Out of Hadesburg and Other Poems by Ioan Es. Pop, Auntie Varvara’s Clients by Stelian Tanase, Who Won the World War of Religions by Daniel Banulescu and The Băiuț Alley Lads by Filip and Matei Florian.
The book launch was also the pretext for a three-day Romanian music festival, entitled Shadows of Romania, which included a piano recital by Anda Anastasescu, a concert of the Ten Tors Orchestra festuring Romanian soloists Ladislau Csendes (viola), Alexandru Matei and Sorin Rotaru (percussion), a recital by the Arnold Camerata (with the premiere of Nick Martințs “Shadows of Romania” horn quintet), as well as a jazz concert by Nicolas Simion Group at the Barbican Bar.
The 5-year project run by the RCI in partnership with the University of Plymouth’s Peninsula Arts programme showcases each year, along side the book launch, different aspects of Romanian art. Upcoming events include performing arts in 2011 and architecture in 2012.



Interferente International Theatre Festival in Cluj-Napoca
December 1 – 12

RCI was the partner of the 2nd edition of the Interferente International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca, organized by the Hungarian Theatre and supported three of the top performances: Final de partida, director Krystian Lupa (Teatro de la Abadia, Spain), Woyzech, chorepgraphy Josef Nadj (Josef Nadj Company, France), The Same Sea, director Hanan Snir (Habimah National Theatre, Israel).




PROJECTS 2009


“George Enescu” European Promotion Tour
March 9 – 30

As co-producer of the 19th edition of the “George Enescu” International Festival, the Romanian Cultural Institute supports the European promotion tour aimed at raising awareness about this major musical event in the European media.

Tour calendar:
Brussels, 9 March, Studio 1 du Flagey. Soloists Vlad Stănculeasa (violin, 2nd place, “George Enescu” International Competition 2007) and Claudia Bara (piano);
Paris, 10 March, Romanian Embassy. Soloists: Clara Cernat (violin) şi Thierry Huillet (piano);
London, 13 March, Royal Academy of Music, Duke’s Hall. Soloists: Remus Azoiţei (violin, 2nd place, “George Enescu” International Competition 1999) and Eduard Stan (piano);
Rome, 20 March, Accademia di Romania. Soloists: Ana Tifu (violin, 1st place, “George Enescu” International Competition 2007) and Giulio Biddau (piano);
Berlin, 26 March, Romanian Embassy. Soloist: Luiza Borac (violin, winner of the 1991 “George Enescu” International Competition);
Vienna, 30 March, Unicredit Viena, main headquarters. Soloists: Alexandru Tomescu (violin, 1st place, “George Enescu” International Competition 1999) and Horia Mihail (piano).


1989 and Its Aftermath: Comparative Perspectives on Revolutions, Liberal Values and Democracy @ University of Maryland
September - October

This project will be part of the RCI's overall effort to organize a series of events that will mark the anniversary of the 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe. The partnership between the RCI and U.MD. (Government and Politics Department) will consist of a series of sessions of 'duplex' lectures that would take place at the University of Maryland. The basic principle of each session would be to discuss a specific topic in a broad analytical perspective comparing the Romanian experience with other case-studies. Each session of lectures will be chaired and moderated by Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu. Two scholars will be invited for each of them: one from Romania and a G.V.P.T. professor based on shared areas of interest. These sessions are aimed at achieving both a visible and novel assessment of the 1989 upheaval in Romania within the larger Central and Eastern European framework.

Sessions:
September – 1989 and the Rebirth of Citizenship: Constitutionalism and Democracy in East Central Europe. Speakers: Ioan Stanomir (Political Sicence Department – Bucharest University) and Karol Soltan (Government and Politics Department, University of Maryland). Chair and discussant Vladimir Tismaneanu (Government and Politics Department, University of Maryland).

September – Myth and Mystification. The 1989 Romanian Revolution Twenty Years After – discussion Angelo Mitchievici (Department of Literature, "Ovidius" University in Constanta) and Vladimir Tismaneanu starting from the screening of “12:08 East of Bucharest” (Director Corneliu Porumboiu).

October – Trust and Civic Engagement after 1989. Speakers Gabriel Badescu (Political Science Department, Babes-Bolyai University) Eric Uslaner (Government and Politics Department, University of Maryland); chair & discussant Vladimir Tismaneanu.



Belcea Quartet in Residence @ the Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest

The project, initiated in 2007 by the Romanian Cultural Institute in partnership with the “George Enescu” Philharmonic, is a premiere on the Romanian musical scene and brings to Bucharest one of the most celebrated young chamber ensembles. The residency includes, apart from the series of four yearly concerts, masterclasses for young quartets from Romania and the Republic of Moldova.

Concert dates 2009
April 22 - programme: Haydn op. 50 nr. 4, Britten op. 25, Beethoven op. 59 nr. 2
June 9 - programme Beethoven op. 95, Prokofiev 1, Schubert, “Death and the Maiden”
October 13 - special appearance by pianist Kevin Kenner, programme: Beethoven op. 59 nr. 1, Franck, piano quintet
December 16 - special appearance by the Arcadia quartet (Cluj-Napoca), programme: Haydn op. 20 nr. 2, Shostakovich 14, Enescu Octet op. 7

The Belcea Quartet has gained an enviable reputation as one of the leading quartets of the new generation. They continue to take the British and international chamber music circuit by storm, consistently receiving critical acclaim for their performances. The Quartet was established at the Royal College of Music in 1994 and has since been coached by the Chilingirian, Amadeus and Alban Berg Quartets. They are the Associate Ensemble at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and are Quartet in Residence at the Atheneum Concert Hall in Bucharest

The Belcea Quartet has an exclusive recording contract with EMI Classics and won the Gramophone Award for best debut recording in 2001. Subsequent recordings for EMI include Schubert quartets, Brahms’ String Quartet Op. 51 No. 1 and second String Quintet with Thomas Kakuska, Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson with Ian Bostridge, Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Thomas Adès and Corin Long, a double disc of Britten’s string quartets, Mozart’s “Dissonance” and “Hoffmeister” quartets, and, most recently, the complete Bartók quartets, for which the Quartet was awarded the title Chamber Music Ensemble of the Year by Germany's prestigious Echo Klassik Awards and nominated for a 2008 Gramophone Award.

The Belcea Quartet’s international engagements regularly take them to the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussels’ Palais des Beaux Arts, Lisbon’s Gulbenkian, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Stockholm’s Konzerthuset, Paris’ Chatelet and Opera Bastille, Milan’s Sala Verdi, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, and to festivals including Luberon, Istanbul, Trondheim, Lausanne, Salzburg, Mecklenburg, and the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade.
In the UK they regularly appear at the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Perth, Bath and Cheltenham festivals, and at the Wigmore Hall where they were resident Quartet from 2001 to 2006.


Summer School for Young Quartets, 2nd edition, Tescani
July 8 - 19

The second edition of the summer school for young quartets, organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the “George Enescu” Museum in Bucharest will take place between 8-19 Iuly at Tescani, Romania.

The programme aims at reviving young musicians’ interest in the music chamber genre by allowing them to study under the guidance of a reputed chamber ensemble, the Belcea Quartet.


Romania at “Peninsula Arts”, Plymouth
November – December

A series of Romanian cultural events hosted by “Peninsula Arts”, the cultural umbrella organization for the University of Plymouth. The events will include a retrospective of Romanian cinema under the title The Shadow of Ceausescu - A season of Romanian features contextualising the Romanian Revolution, an exhibition showing works by four Romanian artists and a literary event build around the launch of the first four translations from Romanian literature that are scheduled to come out at University of Plymouth Press (Six Maladies of the Contemporary Spiritby Constantin Noica, The Cinematography Caravan by Ioan Grosan, Occurrences in the Immediate Unreality by Max Blecher and Lines Poems Poetry by Mircea Ivanescu).
The project will continue until 2013, showcasing each year different aspects of the Romanian artistic scene.


Enescu – Brahms European Encounters
around Europe and the US, October - December

The Romanian Cultural Institute presents this autumn the Enescu-Brahms European Encounters international chamber music tour – featuring the violin and piano duo Remus Azoiţei and Eduard Stan.

The tour, managed by London-based agency Hazard Chase, will include 15 concerts in the most prestigious music venues of Europe and Eastern US:

o 1 October – München, Gasteig, Carl Orff Saal
o 7 October – Stockholm, Konserthuset, Grünewaldsalen
o 15 October – Bruxelles, Palais des Beaus Arts, Chamber Music Hall
o 17 October – Hamburg, Läiszhalle, Kleiner Saal
o 20 October – Praga, Rudolfinum, Suk Hall
o 27 October – Copenhaga, Black Diamond, Royal Library
o 28 October – Madrid, Auditorio Nacional, Sala de Camara
o 10 November – Paris, Salle Cortot
o 11 November – Dublin, National Concert Hall, John Field Room
o 15 November – Amsterdam, Concertgebouw, Kleine Saal
o 17 November – Viena, Wiener Konzerthaus, Schubert Saal
o 19 November – Berlin, Konzerthaus, Kleiner Saal
o 25 November – Bucureşti, Romanian Athenaeum
o 9 December – Washington DC, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
o 10 December – New York, Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall

Remus Azoiţei graduated from the Bucharest Conservatoire, in Daniel Podlovski’s class, then he held a full scholarship to study with Itzhak Perlman and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York, where he obtained his Master Degree. He was appointed violin professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2001, becoming the youngest ever violin professor in the history of this institution. In 2006, he was awarded the title of Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, ARAM for “great achievements in his career”.
Eduard Stan has received international acclaim. He has performed across Europe and the US. A top prize-winner of international competitions, he appeared at numerous festivals. Featured soloist with orchestras in Germany, Austria, Italy and Romania, he performed under baton of Shinya Ozaki, Lutz Köhler, George Balan and Thomas Dorsch, among others. Eduard Stan's critically acclaimed Solo-CDs for Hänssler Classic range from Bach to Debussy.
In 2007, Remus Azoitei and Eduard Stan released the entire repertoire for violin and piano by George Enescu, a world premiere project.



International Conference "The End and the Beginning: The Revolutions of 1989 and the Resurgence of History”
November 9-10, Washington D.C.

The year 2009 marks the anniversary of twenty years since the world-shattering series of events widely known as the revolutions of 1989. The Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies (under the directorship of Prof. Vladimir Tismaneanu) at the University of Maryland (College Park) in collaboration with the Romanian Cultural Institute would like to put forward an academic event that will discuss and revisit the complex aspects implied by the shocks and transformations brought about by the 1989 'glorious revolutions'. The conference is part of a multi-year project (started in 2007), envisaged by Prof. Tismaneanu to provide, by means of reflecting on watershed moments of post-1945 history, an overview of the global dynamics characteristic for the 20th century and its lessons and impact upon the 21st.
The main directions we wish to pursue are: the legitimacy crisis of socialism, ideological routinization and reform in the Soviet bloc; the impact upon the events of what has been called 'the parallel society' (the role of critical intellectuals, the grammar of dissent and the struggle for human rights); the hopes and illusions of 1989 and the road from disenchantment to the restoration; the return of history in the form of a simultaneous dealing with the past and of elite, institution, and norm building. Last but not least, a special section of the conference will deal with the part played by Radio Free Europe in the events of 1989. The conference is envisaged to allow for both investigation of the past and contemplation of the multifaceted meanings and lessons generated in the two postcommunist decades since 1989. Its themes are therefore created in order to achieve a balance between the analysis of complicated legacies (e.g., the 'Leninist extinction') and the insight on the political, cultural, and economic laboratory that Eastern Europe has been in the past twenty years. Starting with the principle of “the return to Europe”, going through the recent debates on European identity, and arriving at the significance of 1989 for recent events such as “the Orange Revolutions”, 1989 has truly brought about different priorities into our contemporary world.

Participants: from Romania: Andrei Pleşu, Horia-Roman Patapievici, Cătălin Avramescu, Emil Hurezeanu, Iulia Motoc, Bogdan Cristian Iacob. From the United States of America and Europe: Agnes Heller (The New School), Konrad Jarausch (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Charles Gati (John Hopkins University), Jeffrey Herf (University of Maryland, College Park), Victor Zaslavsky (LUISS), Charles King (Georgetown University), Vladislav Zubok (Temple University), A Ross. Johnson (former director of Radio Free Europe), Karol Soltan (University of Maryland), Marci Shore (Yale University), Bradley Abrams (Columbia University), Nicholas Miller (Boise State University), T. Mills Kelly (George Mason University), Tom Gallagher (University of Bradford), Lavinia Stan (St. Francis Xavier University), and Noemi Marin (Florida Atlantic University).
The event is organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies (U.MD.), in collaboration with the History and Public Policy Program (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) and the Embassy of Romania to the United States of America.



Book launch: the volume “Stalinism Revisited – The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe and the Dynamics of the Soviet Bloc” @ AAASS Convention

The volume edited by professor Vladimir Tismaneanu based upon the proceedings of the conference „Stalinism Revisited:” (Washington D.C., November, 29-30, 2007) and published by Central European University Press will be launched at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Boston, November, 12-15th.



International Conference Imitatio / Inventio: the Rise of „Literature” from Early to Classic Modernity
November12-14, New Europe College

The Centre of Excellence for the Study of Cultural Identity (University of Bucharest), together with the Romanian Cultural Institute and the New Europe College, are organizing an international conference on Imitatio / Inventio: the Rise of „Literature” from Early to Classic Modernity.
Literature as a cultural institution, with its appended practices, actors and collateral or derived institutions has become the object of interdisciplinary study in the Western academe. While the historico-cultural embeddedness of phenomena associated with its rise, assertion and institutionalization is an obvious frame of reference, its agenda is part of the wider modernity discourse. The disciplinary separation and formation, alongside configurations of epistemological, social and cultural spaces constitutive of our ‘long modernity’ make it necessary that we approach matters from a perspective combining the history of ideas and intellectual history, cultural anthropology and material culture, while laying the main emphasis on textual evidence.

The conference invites papers exploring literature in cultural context with its specific values, models and practices, instituted in historical occurrence.

General keynote speaker: Professor Carlo Ginzburg, UCLA
Keynote speakers: Prof. Michael McKeon, Rutgers University, Prof. Stephen Prickett, Kent University, Prof. John Roe, University of York