The Cluj Modern International Festival runs from the 6th to the 12th of April. Composer Adrian Pop, organiser of the festival, tells us more about the 15th edition in an interview with Ioana Țintea.

Mr Adrian Pop, on Saturday, the 6th of April, Cluj Modern began - an edition without composer Cornel Țăranu, who was an essential presence at the festival. How will the memory of the late musician be marked?

The project of this festival was started more than a year ago together with Cornel Țăranu. In the meantime, he has passed away, so we have changed direction and are dedicating this edition of the festival to him, as if he were among us. This means that, in terms of programming, each of the concerts will begin or end, some even begin and end with a work by Cornel Țăranu. So, a retrospective of the creation involved in the successive evenings of the festival.

We have also dedicated a symposium to him, which launches lines of research into his various activities - composing, organising, leading the Ars Nova Ensemble, performing and so on.

So, we feel him somehow among us because something is always linked to Cornel Țăranu every day of the festival.

Please tell us about the artists who will perform during the festival!

In the festival, unlike the traditional way of organising an evening covered by a single ensemble, we have now made many couplings precisely to include as many artists as possible in this commemoration of the luminous figure of our mentor.

The ensembles from Cluj that inherit the Ars Nova line of activity of Cornel Țăranu are the AdHOC Ensemble, which I animate, and the Couleurs Ensemble, with a younger generation, animated by Alexandru Murariu, who shared the first program, under the title "Remember Ars Nova".

Then, we proclaimed an exceptional saxophone ensemble, working in Cluj - Transilvanian Saxophone Quartet, which is in the festival for the first time. The percussion ensemble of the Academy of Music, also a tradition ensemble, which is in a comeback. We have invited the Ensemble Profil, who delighted us last night with an exceptional level of performance and presence. The ATEM ensemble from Timișoara... So, here we have made an effort to have, in the short time of a festival, a rounded perspective on what is happening in Romania in terms of promoting contemporary music.

And then we have some ideas that we had for a long time and that we have now materialized. We have programmed a so-called "chariot of aces", which means composers and, at the same time, famous performers. We have invited Mihai Măniceanu - a well-known pianist, exceptional composer, of great talent, Nicolas Simion, who is from the world of jazz - so we also do a little fusion, Aurelian Băcan - our clarinetist, also an exceptional composer, and Ion Bogdan Ștefănescu - also a multi-talented and multi-present; he is also a poet, a composer and the flutist we know. They have come to Cluj and are preparing a programme once they have met, which is a first. Usually artists come with prepared programmes, but now they meet here and put together a special programme.

We did the same with artists from very far away. We called the concert Encounter of the Third Kind - the title of Spielberg's film Encounter of the Third Kind. It's about aliens in the film, but we didn't focus on aliens, we focused on very far distances. A Uruguayan clarinettist, Gervasio Tarragona Valli, who has won many international competitions, including the one in Cluj... a violinist from China, Luosha Fang, known in Bucharest because she was invited to an edition of the Meridian Festival... and the American pianist Michael Djupstrom, who is also a composer and a great lover and connoisseur of Romanian music. So, they also meet in Cluj to do a program together.

We enjoyed the support of AFCN, without which we could not have done all these ideas, some of them quite ambitious, the sponsorship of the "Transilvania Leaders" Foundation in Cluj and the Aqua Carpatica company. We have few but very enthusiastic and effective sponsors.

Of course, the "Transilvania" State Philharmonic is a partner. The festival will end with a concert with works by Țăranu, Aurel Stroe, Dan Dediu and a work by me at the end, all of them having this character of remembrance and homage to Cornel Țăranu.

Tell us about the side events of the concerts themselves!

Collaterally, we have a symposium which is dedicated to the multiple sides of Cornel Țăranu's activity and which initiates, I think, lines of research, because, of course, the communications of a symposium cannot be exhaustive, but they can be incentives for in-depth, lengthy and archival research which, obviously, are necessary in the face of a personality as multiple active and valuable as Cornel Țăranu.

We have masterclasses, which is already almost customary, with some of our guests. Ion Bogdan Ștefănescu will offer a masterclass for flutists, Gervasio Tarragona Valli - for clarinetists and Nicolas Simion - an expected masterclass for students interested in jazz music.

On top of that, we've introduced and already seems to be successful a generic "Meet the Musicians!" pre-concert talks. An hour before the concert, one to two or three of the artists about to take the stage are available to have a moderated chat in front of interested members of the audience or colleagues. And they're informal discussions, full of interest, information and even coaching.

And our fellow musicologists also use the opportunity to make two podcasts with guests who are the ones who are further down the line, because the podcasts have already been made with the ones who are from home.

We are also adapting to these modern trends, which are very good for stimulating and activating direct contact with the audience.

And to attract a young audience, right?

I hope so! When I look in the hall, I see quite a few young people, and that makes me happy.

Do you think that this festival has built over time a privileged place among cultural events in Romania?

I think so. It is already rated as an international festival. It is the only one in Transylvania with such a focus - Romanian contemporary music. It has an important local strength and has a national and international outreach that is always carefully cultivated, so I feel it is respected and expected.