Music faculty part of Romanian cultural exchange

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Faculty from Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts are participating in the American Romanian Festival this fall. The festival comprises events in the United States and Romania, including a chamber music concert at noon Tuesday (Oct. 20) in Bryan Recital Hall of BGSU’s Moore Musical Arts Center.

BGSU participants are Vasile Beluska, a professor of violin; Penny Thompson Kruse, an associate professor of violin; Megan Fergusson, an assistant professor of viola; Alan Smith, a professor of cello, and Dr. Emily Freeman Brown, director of orchestral activities, who will conduct a concert Nov. 6 in Timisoara, Romania.

Coordinating the festival is Romanian-born musician and BGSU alumnus Marian Tanau. Now a violinist in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Tanau is the founder and president of The American Romanian Festival Inc., an organization that strives to promote a cultural exchange and foster mutual respect between artists from the U.S. and Eastern Europe.

Next week’s performance in Bowling Green will feature the works of Romanian composers Grigoriu and Enescu. Seven additional concerts are being presented at venues throughout metropolitan Detroit and in Ann Arbor, Mich., through Oct. 29, before the Romanian portion of the festival Nov. 3-7.

While in Romania, the BGSU faculty will be part of a Nov. 3 trio recital in the city of Sannicolaul Mare, followed by a chamber music recital Nov. 4 and a recital of quartets Nov. 5, both in Timisoara’s Philharmonic Hall. The series will conclude Nov. 7 with a chamber music recital in the birthplace of renowned composer Bela Bartok in Sannicolaul Mare.

In addition to the musical performances, the festival will feature a miniseries of Romanian documentaries, as well as a lecture series in collaboration with the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies.

For a complete list of both American and Romanian events, visit www.americanromanianfestival.org.

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(Posted October 14, 2009 )