Music masterclass open to those interested in para-academic practices for electroacoustic experimentation and extended instrumental techniques.
In 2023, Iancu Dumitrescu and Octav Avramescu return to Casa Tranzit for a workshop dedicated to musicians interested in experimentation and improvisation. The workshop is open to conservatory students and alumni, but also to professionals and self-taught musicians; anyone interested in music study and collaborative practice. The workshop is also open to the audience. Musicologists, music journalists and music critics as well as people who are passionate about philosophy, especially phenomenology, and interested in how this field of study offers new perspectives on the field of music are welcome to attend the workshop.
The results of the workshop will be presented in a concert meeting on 8 November at 20.00.

PROGRAM
06 November // 10.00 - 13.00 - workshop
07 November // 10.00 - 13.00 - workshop
08 November // rehearsals - programme to be agreed with participants.
08 November // 20.00 - concert meeting

Iancu Dumitrescu was born in Sibiu. He studied piano and composition in Bucharest, where his teachers included Florica Muzicescu and Alfred Mendelssohn, who introduced him to the music of Schönberg and Webern, which had been banned as degenerate art by the Nazis, and was known relatively late in Romania. Later he studied conducting and philosophy with Sergiu Celibidache, who led Dumitrescu towards musical phenomenology. His oeuvre includes a large number of works for instrumental solo and ensembles, electroacoustic and electronic music.
Internationally, Iancu Dumitrescu’s music is most often associated with a specifically Romanian spectral school of the 60s and 70s, known belatedly in the West. Dumitrescu’s interest in timbral transformations has led him to be associated with the music of his colleague Horațiu Rădulescu, but also with that of the French spectral school and Giacinto Scelsi. Dumitrescu also describes his musical production as “acousmatic”, but refuses any direct affiliation.
In the mid-1960s he was among the founders of the Conservatory’s electronic music studio, and in 1976 he founded the Hyperion Ensemble, described as a “multimedia group dedicated to experimental music” - a lifelong project dedicated to collaborating with academically and non-academically trained musicians. For them he composed electronic accompaniments and with this ensemble he recorded the works of himself and numerous collaborators. The recordings are preserved by his own record label, Edition Modern, in over 40 CDs created since its founding in 1990.
Dumitrescu has also worked as a music journalist (before 1989) and concert organiser. After 1989 he founded and led as artistic director the international festivals Acousmania - International Festival of Electronic and Computer-Assisted Music; Musica Nova; Musica Viva; International Festival of Spectral Music and Spectrum XXI, held annually in three European capitals. In these capacities he has written about and collaborated with the leading performers and composers of contemporary music in Romania over the last 50 years.
He has a constant interest in collaborating with young artists and has led introductory workshops in his music in numerous contexts, from masterclasses at Harvard University, US or Goldsmiths, UK, to independent spaces such as Carol 53 or Malmaison, in Bucharest and Casa Tranzit, in Cluj.

Octav Avramescu is a founding member of the Association Jumătatea plină and since 2009 has worked on numerous projects dedicated to sound experimentation, auditions, concerts, conferences, workshops, releases, installations, etc. in the framework of initiatives like Sâmbăta sonoră, Săptămână Sunetului, Semisilent, PFA Orchestra, Unearthing the music, Redescoperind Muzica. He recently completed his Master’s degree in Multimedia Technologies for Audiovisual Production at Politehnica București, but has previously studied literature and history in France and Canada.
He has been collaborating since 2015 with Iancu Dumitrescu to organize concerts, presentations and sometimes played in live performances, considering these experiences important for his field of interest.

Registration form: https://form.jotform.com/233044545955359

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The program is part of the RESONANCES – Transnational collaborations in contemporary music project. Our mission is to promote and disseminate regional and international contemporary music productions.

You can support Tranzit House by buying a support ticket on Eventbook: (https://eventbook.ro/other/bilete-masterclass-despre-muzica-spectrala-improvizatia-electro-acustica) or on the Patreon platform: https://www.patreon.com/TranzitHouse. Every contribution and gesture of solidarity is very important to us!

This cultural project was co-funded by the Communitas Foundation and the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN). The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grantee.