Teodorescu-Ciocănea: Music for Voices and Orchestra

Composer and pianist Livia Teodorescu-Ciocănea, born in 1959 in Galați in eastern Romania, bridges the old and the modern in her music: echoes of the modal sounds of Romanian folk music create a color palette that is both contemporary and timeless. All three works presented here use the voice—solo and in choir—to address aspects of human existence, suggesting both drama and ritual. Musicologist Livia Teodorescu-Ciocănea not only composes herself but also teaches as a professor at the National University of Music Bucharest and other music institutions. Since 2022, she has been a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg. Her sources of inspiration include abstract concepts, mythology, poetry, philosophy, as well as modern and classical literature. She combines a modern approach with subtle elements from world music, Romanian folklore, and religious music, striving for a variety of tone colors. In addition to free and innovative structural processes, she reinterprets traditional classical and theatrical forms and proposes new ones, such as multi-layered spectralism, hypertimbralism, and nanomusic.