A propos de Ana-Maria
Composer, pianist and conductor. After graduating from the National Conservatory of Music in Bucharest, she obtained a degree from Paris Sorbonne in 1992. In 1994 she was awarded the Grand Prize in Composition from the Romanian Academy. In 1995 she obtained a PHD in Musical Esthetics at Paris, Sorbonne. She is considered to be one of the most important Romanian composers of her generation. Her music is affiliated with the spectral music trend. She represents with the Hyper-Spectral trend in contemporary avant-garde music. Conductor with Dumitrescu of the Hyperion Ensemble. Her music is spectral, acousmatic, heterophonic and transformational. She composed since now around 200 works, music for soloists, chamber music, music for orchestra, electronic music and computer assisted music. Avram received numerous commissions for composition from Radio France, Art Zoyd (France), Les Ateliers UPIC (Paris), Ensemble Lucilin ( Luxembourg), Ensemble Mozaik ( Berlin), Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles ( Mons- Belgium), IMEB- Bourges … She was awarded at Ars Electronica - Linz in 2000 for the work “Traces, Sillons, Sillages” for ensemble and computer assited sounds. Founder and President- since 2006- of the Romanian Community of Electro-acoustic and Computer Assisted Music – CREMAC. Vice-President of the International Community of Electro-acoustic Music – CIME – affiliated to IMC and UNESCO She is also founder and Artistic Director of several national and international festivals dedicated to experimental, electronic and spectral music trends: “Acousmania”- in partnership with Romanian Broadcasting Corporation – six editions, from 2002 to 2007 Musica Nova – In partnership with the Ploiesti Philharmonic Orchestra 2002-2004 Spectrum XXI- dedicated to spectral music trends and held annually in three European capitals. Since 2006 the festival held in Paris, London, Geneva, Brussels, Berlin, Bucharest, Mons, East Grinstead. In 2010 Avram was elected as “Blodget Artist in Residence” at the Harvard University, Department of music, where she taught composition to postgraduate students. She also sustained numerous workshops, lectures and conferences in University of Maine, Farmington (USA), Technical University of Istanbul (Istanbul, Turkey) etc… Main compositions: "Quatre Etudes d'Ombre" for bass flûte (1992) "Axe" for cello (1993) "Métaboles" for bass clarinet (1985) "Quatre Etudes orphiques" for female voice, electronics and ensemble (2006) "Nouvelle Axe" for strings (1997) "In Nomine Lucis" for orchestra (1992) "Telesma" for clarinet, percussion and computer sounds (2002) "Chaosmos" for orchestra (1996) "Lux Animae" for ensemble and computer assisted sounds (2004) "Voices of the Desert" for ensemble and computer assisted sounds (2005) " The Endless Burning Fire" for ensemble and computer sounds (2007) "Un raggio Ardente e di si chiara luce" for strings (2000) Contribution in musicology: ”Ana Maria Avram and Iancu Dumitrescu” - Musicworks Nr 71, “Being composer” - MusicWorks nr.76 ( 2000); “Ana-Maria Avram: an adventure in experimental music” an interview with Costin Cazaban, Bananafish, Los Angeles no 15 (2001) Jean-Noël Von Der Weid: “La Musique du XX Siècle” - Paris, Hachette, 2004 “ Roumanie Terre du Neuvième Ciel” Interviews with musicologist Harry Halbreich – Bucharest, Axis Mundi, 1992. “ The Spectral Music at the beginning of XXIst Century” – 2006. CREMAC Her musics are published by Edition Modern, Electrecord, Artgallery, Radio France She was performed in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Standford, in Vienna ( in the Wien Modern Festival in 1992, 1994, 2003 ) at Paris ( several times at Radio France and Theatre de la Ville ) in London ( several times at Royal Festival Hall, LSO St Luke’s, Conway Hall ) Nancy, Allicante, Lisbon, Baden-Baden, Darmstadt, Moscow, Belgarde, Istanbul, Minneapolis, Cambridge-Boston, Berlin etc. Her works has been commissioned by prestigious ensembles such as Kronos Quartet ( San Francisco ) « 20 Jahrhundert » from Vienna, Musiques Nouvelles ( Mons), Lucilin ( Luxembourg), Mozaik ( Berlin), Bodo Sinfonietta( Norway), soloists from l'Orchestre National de France, orchestras as Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra, Romanian National Orchestra, Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra, L'Orchestre de Chambre de Roumanie, etc. « On the Abolition of the Soul » - a Radio France commission was released on a double CD- Radio France, an anthology of Prix Italia since 1949. PRESS Fragments Romanian composer IANCU DUMITRESCU and his associate, ANA-MARIA AVRAM, leading figures in the Eastern European school of modern classical music have issued many stunning works through the years, but this is the first to be issued in America.... Los Angeles, sept.1999 « Of the three CD's issued thus far, one also contains three excellent works by ANA MARIA AVRAM, whose compositional style is every bit as fascinating and innovative, and is certainly a talent to look out for. .. » Alan FREEMAN "AUDION" , Leicester , March 1993 ANA-MARIA AVRAM recently composed a quartet for Kronos, and followed it up with "Nouvelle Axe", peformed here by the strings of Romania's Hyperion Ensemble, who also work with DUMITRESCU. It's an uncompromising piece with a tendency to noise throughout, drawing blizzards of pizzicato, high - pitched sounds and lots of glissandos from the panoply of avant garde string effects. ANDY HAMILTON - THE WIRE (49), August 1999, LONDON Both Avram and Dumitrescu are convinced that if they have been able to open new doors in music, it is because they have made or found precisely those connections between musical activity and inner life that remain unarticulated in conventional musical training. This is not, however, simply a matter of theit philosophy and motivation as artists. The psychological reality if their music is directly grounded in a conception of the acoustic reality of sound. Tim Hodgkinson, Musicworks No 71, Toronto, Summer 1998 “Works also features three compositions by ANA-MARIA AVRAM. Wonderful to hear music where textural innovations aren't employed to colour pre-existing structures, but evolve form in process. On Zodiaque she plays prepared piano opposite Dumitrescu, a percussionist and magnetic tape. Seems like these Romanians are engaged in a similar kind of sonic research to that which resulted in the masterpieces of Giacinto Scelsi and Ennio Morricone : collective endeavour, genuine "deep listenning". The results are similarly overpowering a milion miles from the tootling inconsecuence of most of what passes for New Music in the classical world.” BEN WATSON - The Wire, London May 1995 “Avram descends musically from a long line of European spectralist composers. Listening to her pieces forces one to recall the tradition of composers like Grisey and Murail, and sonically is incredibly reminiscent of earlier proto-spectralists like Giacinto Scelsi. She is most closely associated with fellow Romanian hyper-spectralist Iancu Dumitrescu, with whom Avram works closely as a composer, conductor, and pianist in the Hyperion Ensemble (founded by Dumitrescu in the 1970s). (…) Spectral music can sometimes seem a bit cold, even mechanical, in its execution. Avram's music is particularly remarkable because of the very real warmth with which she imbues each of her pieces. Whether composing a solo work which she herself performs, or a piece for electronics, pre-recorded tape, and an entire chamber ensemble, Avram has a brilliant flair for the dramatic paired with a sense of subtlety that lends great contrast and excitement to each moment of each of her works. Like other Romanian contemporary composers, such as Stefan Niculescu and Horatiu Radulescu (as well as, of course, Dumitrescu), Avram focuses on the use of bird calls, wind sounds, bells, and "natural" sounds that mix harmonic and inharmonic elements in the creation of her hyper-spectralist pieces. Her music is wonderfully textural and phenomenally beautiful. These clips included here are just a few examples of the already deep contributions Avram has made, at only age 50, to the world of New Music” . WFMU Radio Station, USA