Romanian Cristian Mandeal will return to London on October 10, to conduct the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert will be a festive one, marking 100 years since the end of the World War I.

The program will include diverse works composed in the last century. Among the musicians who will go on stage, there will be Ian Fountain (piano, Great Britain), Srdjan Vukasinovic (accordion, Serbia), Friederike Krum (mezzo-soprano, Germany), and Telman Guzhevsky (tenor, Israel). More details about the concert are available here.

Cristian Mandeal's professional relationship with Great Britain has a significant history, marked by the fact that, in 2002, he signed the British premiere of Oedipe by Enescu at the Edinburgh Festival, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Moreover, another exceptional concert was the one that opened the 2014-2015 season, when the Romanian conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

More recently, Cristian Mandeal conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London in November 2017, at a gala concert supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London (ICR London) and dedicated to a triple celebration: the National Day of Romania, 100 years since the birth of Dinu Lipatti, and the start of the Great Union Centennial Year.

Cristian Mandeal has been a conductor for over 40 years, practicing his profession both abroad and in Romania. He studied at the "Ciprian Porumbescu" Conservatory for 10 years (1965 - 1975) and then continued his studies in Berlin and Munich. He was the conductor of the philharmonics in Targu Mures (1977-1980), Cluj (1980-1987) and Bucharest (1987-2009). As principal conductor and general manager of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic (1991 - 2009), he raised the orchestra to very high levels, living behind a symbol-institution for Romania. He was also artistic director of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, in 2001 and 2003.

Abroad, Cristian Mandeal has conducted hundreds of concerts as guest of dozens of orchestras on four continents in 35 countries and 31 capitals. He has participated in many prestigious international festivals in the company of the most renowned soloists of the contemporary world. He has also been the artistic director of the Northern Israeli Orchestra, Haifa (1999–2002) and the Euskadi Symphony – Basque National Orchestra, San Sebastian (2001–2008), permanent conductor of the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento (2000–2003), principal guest conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester (2003–2008; the first to hold this title in the 150-year history of the orchestra), the Belgrade Philharmonic (the 2006–2007 season), and the Copenhagen Philharmonic (2006–2013).

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(photo credit: Virgil Oprina)