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new episode on Black Rhino Radio when George Enescu International Festival and Competition in the town |

Final Concert of the Conducting Masterclass, 28.☀️.2026, in pursuit of excellence Cristian Măcelaru Ana Spasovska Ben Draper Valentina Paolucci ⭐️

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An evening from another world. Or if it was this one, it felt interstellar. Born in New York City to professional musician parents, Marin Alsop was nine when she saw Leonard Bernstein conduct at Carnegie Hall, and knew, right there, she’d become a conductor.

I saw her a few days ago at the masterclass. Tonight, in Bucharest, she charmed all over again — on the podium with the Romanian Radio National Orchestra at the Romanian Athenaeum, alongside pianist Zygmunt Krauze, in a program built around his Piano Concerto No. 3, “Fragments of Memory,” paired with works by Sarah Kirkland Snider, Steven Mackey, and Doina Rotaru. 

The evening opened with a pre-concert in the Athenaeum foyer, featuring the three Composition Masterclass participants’ works, performed by the Couleurs Ensemble — each conducted by one of the three young conductors from the Conducting Masterclass, hand-picked by Cristian Măcelaru.

Interstellar Marin Alsop ⭐️ George Enescu International Festival and Competition Jason Petru Pane Sarah Kirkland Snider Doina Rotaru Steven Mackey Ensemble Couleurs

Nobody left behind, but lifted ⭐️ Cristian Măcelaru masterclass evening George Enescu International Festival and Competition Bianca Boitan-Rusu magic 🪄

One of the most important contemporary conductors, Marin Alsop, conducts in Romania for the first time today, August 27, at the Romanian Athenaeum, as part of the 20th edition of the George Enescu International Competition. On the podium of the National Radio Orchestra, Marin Alsop will lead, from 7:30 PM, the Final Concert of the Composition Section, with a program bringing together contemporary works by Zygmunt Krauze, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Steven Mackey, and Doina Rotaru.

The concert is one of the central moments of the first week of the Enescu Competition 2026, dedicated to masterclasses in composition, conducting, and performance, and highlights the aesthetic diversity of contemporary music through the evening’s four works, written by members of the Composition Section jury.

Marin Alsop is one of the figures who has changed the recent history of conducting, opening doors in a profession long dominated by men. She is the first woman to have led prestigious orchestras in the United States, South America, Austria, and Great Britain, and the first and only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2025, the League of American Orchestras awarded her the Golden Baton, the organization’s highest honor.
George Enescu International Festival and Competition Bianca Boitan-Rusu Marin Alsop Cristian Măcelaru

Take every technical detail, and give it a human touch - Composition Masterclass, Cristian Măcelaru. Nothing else compared with this evening yesterday, with young artists and their masters, along Marin Alsop ⭐️ What’s your plan? - she asked 🌿 Multiple answers were phrased by dorian dimitrov, Ben Draper, Xiao Geng, Petru Pane, Valentina Paolucci, Ana Spasovska 🪄
George Enescu International Festival and Competition Bianca Boitan-Rusu

Opening evening, in pursuit of excellence - Sunday night under the dome of the Romanian Athenaeum — the George Enescu International Competition opened its 2026 edition with a conversation between the contemporary and the classic. The National Radio Orchestra, led by Cristian Măcelaru, brought back last edition’s winners — Mayumi Kanagawa, Yo Kitamura, and Roman Lopatynskyi — alongside Diego Santamaria’s “The Stone and the Ivy” and Dan Dediu’s “Brahmsodia,” a triple concerto that riffs playfully on Brahms’s legacy. And Enescu’s Symphony No. 1 — written at 24, by the composer.
What an opening, George Enescu International Festival and Competition Cristian Măcelaru Orchestra Națională Radio Bianca Boitan-Rusu ⭐️

For the first time in the history of the George Enescu International Competition, the semifinals of the instrumental sections – Cello, Violin, and Piano – will take place in a play & conduct format, one of the major novelties of the 2026 edition. The six semifinalists in each section will face a test that goes beyond traditional solo performance: they will play alongside the Radio Chamber Orchestra while simultaneously providing the ensemble’s artistic direction, without a conductor.

The semifinals will take place at the Romanian Athenaeum, on September 5 – Cello, September 11 – Violin, and September 17 – Piano, and each will be structured in two parts.
In the first part, scheduled from 10:00 AM, semifinalists will perform repertoire representative of George Enescu’s chamber music output. Public access to this part is free. From 4:00 PM comes one of the major novelties of this edition: the play & conduct test, in which each competitor becomes both soloist and musical leader of the Radio Chamber Orchestra.

In the play & conduct format, the soloist also takes on the responsibility of the orchestra’s artistic direction. They perform their own part and, at the same time, must communicate their vision of the work to the ensemble. Through gesture, gaze, breathing, movement, and the way they shape the musical phrase, the semifinalist must create coherence between their own performance and the orchestra’s response.

It is a test of virtuosity, but above all one of musical maturity, communication skills, and artistic leadership. The competitor is evaluated not only on the quality of their solo performance, but also on their ability to lead an ensemble and build a coherent interpretation together with it.

George Enescu International Festival and Competition Bianca Boitan-Rusu

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