Fanfare for a friend

“Fanfare for a friend” is the title of the concert that will take place on Thursday February 4th, which the Philharmonic dedicates to maestro Sasha Nikolovski-Gjumar (1966-2017), one of the most important conductors on our music scene with whom the orchestra performed a series of unforgettable concerts. The conductor is Gabriel Bebeselea, and the program includes works by Copeland, Dika, Guno, Schmidt, Strauss and the young Macedonian composer Angel Spiroski.

Born in 1987, Gabriel Bebeşelea is recognized as “one of the most gifted conductors born in the last decades in Romania” (George Enescu Festival Journal, September 7th 2011) and is winner of the first prize of the “Lovro von Matačić” Conducting Competition (Zagreb 2015) and the first prize in the “Jeunesses Musicales” Conducting Competition (Bucharest 2011). Gabriel Bebeşelea was semifinalist of the “Donatella Flick” Conducting Competition of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2014 and semifinalist of the Gustav Mahler Competition of the Bamberg Symphony in 2016. A notable opera conductor, Bebeşelea was named Principal Conductor of the Romanian National Opera of Iaşi in 2011, becoming the youngest ever Principal Conductor in Romania. In 2015 he was named Principal Conductor of the National Romanian Opera House of Cluj-Napoca. In 2014 he was presented with the “Best Conductor” award at the Romanian National Opera Houses Awards.

 Gabriel Bebeșelea is known to devote himself to researching and rediscovering music and he is responsible for uncovering several long forgotten or neglected musical masterpieces. In 2017, to bring such music to light, he founded the ensemble Musica Ricercata – an international artistic collective dedicated to the historically informed performance of music spanning from the baroque to modern eras, with an emphasis on early music.