The great Romanian violinist Eugene Sarbu died in London on 21 July 2024. A true ambassador of Romanian culture worldwide and an active supporter of his home country, maestro Sarbu was a laureate of several major competitions and enjoyed a truly impressive international solo and recital performance career. We are honoured to remember his life and work during an extraordinary event featuring his sister, pianist Carmina Sarbu, who accompanied the violinist in many unforgettable recitals, such as the one in 1997 when he was invited by HM King Charles III to perform at St. James’ Palace.
Carmina Sarbu will share lesser-known aspects of Eugene Sarbu's career and life in a conversation with Aura Woodward, Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London and former BBC broadcaster. The audience will also be able to hear and see Maestro in various recordings taken during his long and fruitful career. This event is part of the Enescu Concerts Series 2024-2025.
When: Thursday 7, November 2024 at 7 PM
Where: The Romanian Cultural Institute, 1Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH
This is a free event, but please register HERE.
Eugene Sarbu was born in 1950 in Romania and began his violin studies at the age of five with his father. He made his first solo appearance when he was six and went on to study music in his home town of Galați (under Nachmanovici), Bucharest (with G. Avakian and I. Geanta) and Paris (with Robert Soëtens). At the recommendation of Yehudi Menuhin, he received a scholarship from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to study with Ivan Galamian. Upon graduation, Sarbu continued with Galamian at the Juilliard School in New York, where he received his Master of Music degree, and with Nathan Milstein in London and Zurich. His international career was launched by a series of gold medals in several major competitions in Europe and North America. These included the Rockefeller Prize for Music in the US, the first prize in the Paganini International Competition ‘Premio Paganini’ in Genoa, Italy, plus first prize and the audience prize in the Carl Flesh International Competition in London. He also won joint second in the violin section of the International Competition for Musicians – West German Radios, Munich in 1975, plus third place in the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in the same year. His performance career saw him in recitals with his pianist sister, Carmina Sarbu, as well as performances with orchestras in the UK, US, Europe, Asia, South America and Australasia. His notable solo appearances include the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and Henryk Czyz in 1980, the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and Antal Doráti in 1981, as well as a BBC Proms performance in 1983, also with RPO and Ferdinand Leitner. He participated in the bicentenary celebration of Paganini in Genoa in 1982, and that year became the conductor and soloist for the European Master Orchestra. Following the Romanian revolution in 1989, Sârbu initiated a world campaign to help his home country by giving numerous benefit concerts around the world. In December 1994, Eugene Sarbu gave a performance at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, on Paganini’s ’Il Cannone’ Guarneri del Gesù violin. In 1997, he was invited by HRH Prince Charles to perform together with his sister at St. James’ Palace, becoming honorary director of the Romanian National Radio Orchestra in Bucharest that same year. In 1999, Sarbu opened the 1999-2000 season at Carnegie Hall in New York, performing the Brahms Violin Concerto with the American Symphony Orchestra. Sarbu recorded extensively for the BBC and on disc for EMI and Auvidis. Eugene Sarbu was acclaimed by audiences and critics everywhere as one of the foremost violinists of our time and performed on a Stradivari violin made in Cremona in 1729.
Born in Romania, Carmina Sarbubegan to study the piano at the early age of four with Charlotta Marcovich. A year later, she was admitted to the Special School of Music for exceptionally gifted children in her hometown of Galați where she studied with Prof. Elvira Atanasiu. At the same time, Carmina took private lessons in Bucharest with Cella Delavrancea, a great Romanian pianist and a former collaborator of George Enescu. She continued her studies at the National Conservatoire in Bucharest. After graduation, the young pianist worked in Bucharest with Prof. Dragoș Tănăsescu on a new method of piano technique. Subsequently, she studied abroad with the distinguished pianists Eugene List and Leon Fleischer in the US and Benjamin Kaplan in London. Carmina has performed extensively in her own country and abroad, developing a career which took her across five continents, as a soloist and as a recital partner to her brother, the famous violinist Eugene Sârbu. She has toured the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa and the US, among other countries. She has been heard in the world's most prestigious halls: Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Hall (London); Salle Gaveau (Paris); Musickverein Saal (Vienna) and Teatro Real (Madrid) among others. Everywhere, she has been acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. Dominic Gill of theFinancial Times hailed her as a "unique artist of distinct sensitivity". Carmina Sarbu's artistry is in the tradition of the great Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti and has been recognised as such with the First Prize in the Lipatti Competition in Bucharest. Her performances of the classics - especially Mozart - have been compared to those of the legendary Clara Haskil.
Photo by Lelli E. Masotti (1980-1981)
