User:Minutarus/Ştefan Gheorghiu (musician)

Stefan Gheorghiu was a romanian violonist born in Galati/Romania in 1926.

At 5 he starts studying the violin and at 9 becomes student of the Royal Music Accademy in Bucharest. George Enescu recommended him for a scholarship in Paris, where he studied the violin with Enescu and Maurice Hewitt and musical harmony and counterpoint with Noel Gallon. During the war he continued studies in Bucharest with Garabet Avakian and Mihail Jora. Gheorghiu finished his studies in Moscow, attending the violin performing art masterclasses of David Oistrach.

Since 1946 he was appointed concert-soloist of the State Philharmonic in Bucharest, where he performed both in symphonic concerts and in violin recitals. He was member of the Romanian Trio, together with Valentin Gheorghiu and Radu Aldulescu. At the first edition of the George Enescu International Competition in 1958, he won the first prize for the best performance of the third sonata by Enescu, together with his brother the pianist Valentin Gheorghiu. The jury consisted of Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrach, Henrik Szering, Andre Gertler, Nadia Boulanger and George Georgescu.

During his 40 years of concertistic activity, Stefan Gheorghiu played more than 2000 performances in his native country and touring in Europe, USA, Canada and Asia. Among the most important musical centers that had him as a guest were Paris, Menton, London, Manchester, Rome, Vienna, Salzburg, Locarno, Lausanne, Basel Prague, Warshaw, Berlin, Munchen, Leipzig, Moscow, Sankt Petersburg, Riga, Talin, Sofia, Athens, Tesalonik, Montreal, San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Boston, Peking, Shanghai, Canton, Seoul. He worked together with conductors Frans Konwitschny, Constantin Silvestri, Kyrill Kondrashin, George Georgescu, Jean Perisson, Karel Ancerl, Rafael Kubelik.

He made recordings for Electrecord (the romanian home record), Supraphon and for other different radios across Europe. Stefan Gheorghiu made many first audition recordings of George Enescu's work: the piano quartet, the piano quintet, the chamber symphony (Grand Prix du Disque - Paris), "Impressions d'enfance", the third sonata.

His concertistic activity was doubled, starting with 1960 by the pedagogical one. He was a violin performing art professor at the Music Accademy in Bucharest. His remarkable results in developing of the young artists were awarded at many international violin competitions.