On Thursday, December 12th, 2024, the Radio Boys' Choir will give its first concert on the stage of the Radio Hall. About this event Liviu Ofițeru, the conductor of the band, talked to our colleague, Ioana Țintea.

You will conduct the Radio Boys' Choir, during the first concert held by this ensemble at the Radio Hall. First of all, I would ask you to tell us how the idea of setting up this band started and what is the mission of the choir?

The story is a bit complicated. Start after the pandemic, after the restrictions that were. Within the Radio Children's Choir there was a group of a few boys in whom, during the two years of inactivity, they changed their voice. Remaining with the love for music and the extraordinary training from the Children's Choir, they wanted to continue to sing, but they no longer had room in the children's choir. Then, at the initiative of Magdalena Faur together with Mr. Răzvan Rădos, the conductor of the Radio Children's Choir created a pilot project of the boys' ensemble of the Radio Children's Choir. Basically, this is how this nucleus was formed, on the structure of the Radio Children's Choir, the boys who changed their voice and who loved music and wanted to continue making music. Therefore, following this pilot program, several pre-selections were made and the formation of this ensemble of boys continued, in parallel with the activity of the Radio Children's Choir and others were added, not only from the children's choir. After the pre-selection, the number increased from seven to eight children, they reached 12, too few to form a choir, but enough to be a vocal group. This core developed, so that in 2022 the first concert with the status of guest on the Radio Stage of the children's choir concert with a few songs took place, and later other concerts took place in Catholic, Orthodox churches.

Their first concert under this title is an occasion of great emotions for them. This year they participated, also with the status of guest, at the Tribal concert, which was a success, it was an extraordinary concert made by Mr. Răzvan Rădos. I have to remind that practically the founder of the Boys Choir is Mrs Magdalena Faur. She took care of all the details that are not few and of the training, she having experience, being a concert pianist in the children's choir, she practically created this ensemble. Now it is different because this concert on the 12th has a special charge because it is the launch of the only boys' choir in Romania, it is practically a 100% Radio Romania product. We hope to have an exceptional concert. The children are excited and aware of this responsibility they have. We are not a competitor of the children's choir, but we complement it with a different repertoire.

The December 12th concert will begin with Benjamin Britten 's ACeremony of Carols .

In the original version.

Original, as Britten wrote it. This is the first time singing with a boys' choir in Romania. The audience will have the opportunity to listen to the original version, as written by Britten, with Maria Bâldea, the soloist of the National Radio Orchestra, on the harp. We are glad that she accepted our invitation and we are very excited, the children were very excited, she was very friendly at rehearsals. He shared a little of the secrets of this complicated and beautiful instrument. The rest of the program will include a traditional Romanian repertoire, starting from O, what wonderful news, The Departure of the Magi, but also with an arrangement of Magdalena Faur at the song Up boyars, but also from the international repertoire, we mention Schedryk - Ukrainian carol and well-known songs, Joy To The World. We also have a very old French carol, Noelle Nouvelet, which they sang in churches, at Sacre Coeur or at the Anglican Church. However, we also have in the program a play that is not a proper carol, it is a religious play, where the conductor will be the founder of the choir, Mrs. Magdalena Faur. It's Bogoroditse Devo. It is a Slavic carol, of Bulgarian origin, after which we return to the area of Romanian and international carols. We wanted to have a representation of the extraordinary potential that this choir has. We work with singing children, we teach them how to make sound, how to sing together. The children are extraordinary, they are talented. We also work with them on discipline issues, because at Radio România there is an elite level that they must be able to achieve and maintain.

In the long run, what are the projects that Radio Boys' Choir is considering and how do you think this new ensemble will be received by the public?

We'll see how it's received. We hope very well. Liviu Officer: "We are ready to have a very good concert and we invite the audience not to miss this unique opportunity to launch the Radio Boys Choir" As projects, for this year we are considering some trips to Bulgaria to some festivals, but also two concerts in the spring, in the season. We are planning a religious music concert in a vocal-symphonic version and a gospel music concert, taken to the funk area, May to June 1st we can also expect a little entertainment where they are fine on this side. I would mention December 17th where they will have a symphonic vocal concert at the National University of Music in Bucharest, a very bold project of Mr. Dan Racoveanu and conducted by Adrian Buciu, the Baroque ensemble of the National University of Music in Bucharest, the BAROCkers, as they call themselves and will perform Fallt mit Danken, the 4th Cantata of the Bach-Weihnachts Christmas Oratory.