My guest this evening is the guitarist Ovidiu Pintilie, who initiated a project dedicated to his instrument, a project that will take place in several cities in Romania, in the second half of March.

Good evening, Ovidiu! Welcome in the Radio România Muzical studio!

Good evening! I am happy to meet you and for the opportunity to talk about this project.

You are here for the first time in this studio, aren't you?

Indeed I am.

We invited you to talk about a project of which you are the founder, launched by a young association founded last year, Nova Guitar Association. First of all, tell us about this association. What's its purpose ?

The Nova Guitar Association, of which I am one of the founders indeed, aims to bring this instrument, the guitar, as close as possible to the hearts of the audience. Of course, it's a very well-known instrument everywhere, but when we talk about the classical guitar, things seem to be a bit different than usual. When we talk about classical guitar we think of flamenco, we think of Paco de Lucia... we still don't know how to distinguish this very clearly. We aim to succeed in promoting the classical guitar repertoire, to bring it close to the public because we are sure that they would accept this initiative with open hearts.

From your artist experience, is there a music-loving audience in Romania that wants to hear the classical guitar?

We think so, and I'll tell you why. That's what we're going to start with and I'm going to tell you where this project idea came from. I remember that last year in May, the guitarist Aniello Desiderio performed on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum with the "George Enescu" Philharmonic with the Concierto by Aranjuez de Rodrigo, the most famous guitar concert. And I remember that there were two full evenings at the Athenaeum, in which there was not a single free seat. I was absolutely fascinated! And then, I thought and realized that this instrument can be a link especially between the young audience, the audience that we want to bring to the auditoriums, and the art institutions in the country. This is where the idea of the project, Conciertos para guitarra, came from, which aims to promote three works for guitar and orchestra, but adapted for guitar and string instrumental ensemble. And as locations, we thought exactly according to the model we had in mind a year ago, at the concert at the Ateneum, in which we would be able to bring concerts for guitar and orchestra, even if for a smaller formula, on the stages of the country's philharmonics. And so far, at least if we talk about the first concert we will have on Saturday, in Brașov, at Sala Patria, we can say that we are already approaching the maximum capacity of the hall, which makes us extremely happy.

Conciertos para guitarra is a project supported by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. So, it has an extra argument in front of the public. Apart from you, who are the other protagonists who will be on stage and how did you arrive at this concert formula?

Here is a slightly older story. For two years, I was a scholarship holder of the "Young Talents" program supported by the Margareta of Romania Royal Foundation. There I had many mentors from whom I had a lot of things to learn, including Rafael Butaru...

Violinist Rafael Butaru, concertmaster of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra, but also of the Bucharest National Opera Orchestra.

... and a very good friend of this program, "Young talents". We had the opportunity to organize a concert in which he held a series of masterclasses in which we also performed a piece by Piazzolla together. It was absolutely wonderful to collaborate. And, from that moment, we decided that in the near future we would try to do something together. Things stagnated, I think it was about two years from then, until this idea came straight from a concert hall, thinking about this project. And the first name that came to my mind was Rafael Butaru. And when he found out about this invitation, he was very open, and around him he managed to gather an absolutely great team. We are talking about the violinist Iulia Vaida, we have Iulia Goiană on the viola, Constantin Borodin on the cello - laureate of the "George Enescu" Competition - and Florentina Ciornei on the double bass.

So here it is, a team of talented people starting an interesting project. You must tell us which cities you will be stopping in this second part of March!

The first concert will take place on Saturday, March 16th - all concerts will start at 7 PM - at Sala Patria in Brașov. The next date is March 19th, in Târgu Mureș, at the Small Philharmonic Hall in Târgu Mureș. After that, we continue our journey to Timișoara, with the "Banatul" Philharmonic, on March 21st, at the Capitol Hall. We will take a short break for a few days, after which we will arrive at the "Oltenia" Philharmonic in Craiova on March 27th. And on March 30th, we will conclude "intimately", at the Small hall of the Romanian Athenaeum. I think that "intimately" suits perfectly this instrument...the guitar.

Especially since you, just a month ago, on February 13th, had a recital in that small hall of the Romanian Athenaeum. Howwas it then? How were you received by the public? What repertoire did you perform then?

It was a great experience then too. We approached, somehow with the same idea, to present to the public this evolution of the instrument, of the guitar, works from different periods, starting from the baroque and reaching the contemporary period. Basically, I tried to make a small compression of the evolution of this instrument.

And because you talked about the repertoire, which is the repertoire of this "Conciertos para guitarra". What will you play on this tour?

The first work will be the Concerto in D major for guitar and orchestra by Antonio Vivaldi. I like to think of it as a pearl, a jewel. It is a short concerto, specific to the baroque period, but with extraordinary intensity. Aftert hat, we'll move into the classical period, where we'll present Mauro Giuliani with the Concerto in A major - probably one of the most famous and challenging works of the classical period for the guitar.

How often is this concert performed here, in Romania?

I will be very honest. At least for the last ten years, I have not seen it anywhere on the poster. And finally, we will perform Concerto no. 2 for guitar and string orchestra written by the Romanian composer Cătălin Ștefănescu Pătrașcu. It is practically the second appearance of this concert; the first taking place perhaps 15 years ago, on the stage of the Radio Hall, where the world premiere took place. This time, we are bringing it back to the Romanian stages because we believe that we must promote our composers now, while we have them with us.

You said a little earlier that you were, for two years, a "Young talents" scholarship holder, a scholarship initiated by the Margareta of Romania Royal Foundation. How has this scholarship helped you in your career? I know that at some point you were able to buy recording instruments to participate in certain contests.

Indeed. It was an absolutely exceptional time for me. I remember even now, it happened in the middle of the pandemic when I applied (applications were online back then) and I was very happy to be among the 15 chosen instrumentalists to be part of this program. And of course, in addition to this financial support throug hwhich I was able to purchase various materials - and the microphones that I have now I purchased from the scholarship and I can say that with them I did a lot of things at home, I sent to contests, were absolutely phenomenally useful - we are talking about a very important moral support, especially in that period when we, the artists, already didn't know where we were going. For us, the young artists of that time, it was even harder. I didn't know what was going to happen. And this program, I felt that gave me the drive to keep going, to not give up, to be there, to progress...even if it was a break, cause it was back then, but not to stop. It is precisely during that period that I had to manage to develop myself even more.

And I suspect that the meetings with the artists at the masterclasses within this scholarship also helped you.

Of course. All the mentorships we had - in the first phase, were online, after which they also started to be physical - they managed t obring us Gabriel Bebeșelea, Tiberiu Soare, Mrs. Verona Maier, Rafael Butaru and many others... Alexandra Dariescu... extremely valuable people, who addressed us, the young people. It was an absolutely overwhelming feeling of joy and whenever it comes to this scholarship I have nothing but good things to say.

I'm happy for you. So, the month of March is going to end...What does Ovidiu Pintilie have planned for the next period?

After that repertoire from the Ateneum, for solo guitar, and the repertoire now, with this project... I think that a small break, a very small break, is needed, I feel that it is needed. But besides that, I have a few more projects planned. I'm thinking of starting some concerts in which, in the same way, we bring the guitar in a slightly different way on the Romanian stages.

And maybe you'll think about making an album too, who knows...

Sure you do!

I wish you the best, Ovidiu ! We, at Radio România Muzical, will travel with you throughout this project, as media partners, so our listeners will know where and when they can listen to you and your stage partners.