tibor varga

Description

Ştefan Gheorghiu (March 22, 1926 -- March 17, 2010) Stefan Gheorghiu was violinist and teacher, born in Galati/Romania in 1926. At 5 he started studying the violin under Edouard Caudella and at 9 becomes student of the Royal Music Academy in Bucharest. George Enescu recommended him for a scholarship at the Concervatoire National de Musique de 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 Oistrakh. 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 Oistrakh, Henryk Szeryng, 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 Franz 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 National University of Music Bucharest. His remarkable results in developing of the young artists were awarded at many international violin competitions like Queen Elizabeth, Jaques Thibaud, Indianapolis, Tchaikowsky, Paganini, Montreal, Enescu, Flesch, Menihun, Tibor Varga, etc. He passed away in March 17, 2010 in Bucharest.