Maestro Grenadie Ciobanu, I'd like to start with a very important fact, the fact that the Days of New Music International Festival in Chișinău turned 34 years old. It's an admirable age for an event dedicated to contemporary music, which proves, most of all, that people are interested. I'd like to ask how this festival came to be and how you managed to make it appealing to the public for so long? What's the magic secret?

I don't know if there's any magic secret, but we started in 1990, when my colleagues offered me the chance to lead the Union of Composers and Musicologists and I instantly made this proposal, because I was familiar with what's going on, with global musical events. This meant that I knew about contemporary music festivals, especially "Warsaw Autumn", which was already quite old, just like we are now, and other festivals my colleagues participated in, and we decided that we should be part of these events and connect to them. Back then we were limited, internationally speaking, because all relations were with countries that were former Soviet Union Republics. The Baltic states and Caucasian states had better chances of communicating with each other. They already had a good platform because they had creation houses on their territories and were able to organize meetings and cultural exchanges and we couldn't. It was precisely to overcome this situation that we organized this festival. My colleagues supported my idea because before the festival, which is held annually, Chișinău composers' creations were only shown once every four years during so-called congresses and once every two years during plenary meetings where there wasn't enough time for the works of young composers. This situation changed once the festival started and every composer can have their work performed at the festival, except symphonies. Let's talk about the fact that we have two to four symphony concerts every edition. We have the possibility to perform composers' works, symphony pieces. This is why the festival was conceived, so we could be part of these events, but a specific goal was Romanian music. This was one of my goals, that a large part of the process would be familiarization with Romanian music.

And this is what the public of Chișinău wanted as well.

Yes, music lovers and experts, because this was missing before and we have to take it back. For this purpose, to take it back, to familiarize ourselves, to know, to capitalize on and to be part of these events, because that's our goal, we believed, and I'm sticking to this belief, that us, composers form the Republic of Moldova, must be perceived as part of this Romanian cultural context. To get to know it, we had to organize the festival and dedicate a part of it to Romanian music. From the very first editions, the greatest Romanian composers participated in the festival, not just with original pieces but also coming up with master classes and bringing their bands along.

Let's go through how the festival unfolded this year. On October 6th there were two events, one was about the composer Violeta Dinescu, and I'd like you to tell us about her connection to Moldova, and the other was a concert with music from various countries, mostly from abroad, though Romanian artists also participated. Could you tell me about these events?

There's a long standing friendship and collaboration that ties us to Violeta Dinescu, because she's been participating since the festival's first edition. More than that, she's the one who made the participation of the "Notabu" ensemble in Düsseldorf, there were 18 people who came to Chișinău. Even the first international chronicle, about the Days of New Music International Festival, was written by Violeta Dinescu. After that, she participated in multiple editions, she came to Chișinău many times and she suggested and supported the participation of valuable German musicians. We're talking about artistic scholarships as well as youth scholarships that were suggested by Violeta Dinescu and she helped make it happen, so that our youths could benefit from these scholarships. She'd always send a bunch of books written by her and her German colleagues, but dedicated to Romanian music, and we have them in our libraries, the Library of the Academy of Music, the German Library, the National Library. It was very important for what's happening here in Chișinău.

You even conferred a title.

Actually, Doctor Honoris Causa was conferred by the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts. The Senate decided on it and it was a great honor for us that Violeta Dinescu accepted this title. She's well known to us also for the position she holds at the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg, which is dean at Class 3 of Arts. Part of our artists, plastic artists, writers, who are members of this Academy, some of my musician colleagues, are also members of the Academy of Science. When she participated at the 33^rd edition of the Days of New Music Festival, a conference was organized at the Academy of Science and Violeta Dinescu was invited as well. She was also awarded the "Dimitrie Cantemir" Medal of the Academy of Science. About the second half of your question, about multiple organizations, it was also a goal, because this is how the festival was thought up, to create a platform that enabled collaboration with more organizations, with similar unions and creative associations, and many of these things have become a tradition. For two years now we've been collaborating with the PHASMA organization, an international organization that's led by two famous musicians: flutist Iwona Glinka, known throughout Europe, and composer Michail Travlos.

I want to ask, because I thought this was interesting, the fact that in this edition you combined concerts with master classes, in composition and flute playing. I'd like you to tell me who the guest teachers are and how were the classes received by the students?

Iwona Glinka, who taught flute classes, suggested this kind of collaboration and of course we accepted. Iwona Glinka taught flute and Michail Travlos taught composition. Students attended these classes in droves, even high schoolers came to the flute master classes, students from both music high schools. From what I know, the resonance is great. And it's the same for composition. Michail Travlos talked about advanced harmony, which for students, and even for fellow harmony teachers, was very interesting, about negative harmony, energy, color, dramaturgy and clarity, elements that are essential for a composer, building off harmony. So, using only harmony, how can you create energy, how can you create color? Timbre is the basis of color. And when all other elements were left aside and harmony was the focus of the discussion, through changing harmony, to intensify or vice versa, the color, it was very interesting. The reaction was great because everyone who participated highly appreciated these classes. There's going to be another master class, in clarinet, taught by a clarinetist who's active in Hochschule, Munich, an alumnus of this school who's originally from Chișinău. I'm talking about Slava Cernavca, a clarinetist who's well known in Germany.

Let's talk a little about the symphony part of the festival, the National Symphony Orchestra of Teleradio Moldova concert that took place on October 7^th. I know that this orchestra is a regular part of the festival, they've participated in every edition, conducted by Gheorghe Mustea. This time, with both symphonic and concertante works. What repertoire did they perform and what soloists participated? And how did the composers collaborate with the orchestra?

This concert crowned our series of autumn concerts. It's more proof that we have the goal to familiarize our audience and experts with the values of Romanian music. The program featured works belonging to Romanian composers and a work by Michail Travlos, who participated in this edition. They performed Carmen Cârneci's Trojtza, two pieces by Violeta Dinescu, the clarinet concerto and "Memories", a piece for orchestra and strings. It was the debut of Sorin Lerescu's Concertul nr. 2 pentru pian (lit. "Piano concerto no. 2") and Michail Travlos's "4 Fairy Tales". The closing act was a piece by Moldavian composer Laurențiu Gondiu, who lives in Bucharest. It was the conductor's suggestion for the program to end with a succinct piece, but I can't ignore the fact that it was our colleague Laurențiu Gondiu's work. We had the opportunity to listen to consecrated instrumentalists, such as Constantin Sandu, a pianist living in Porto who performed Sorin Lerescu's concerto, and the young, but very talented clarinetist Andrei Cuibariu, who performed Violeta Dinescu's concerto alongside pianist Sorin Petrescu, because the concerto also features a very well-defined piano with a special role, so Violeta Dinescu wanted it to be Sorin Petrescu, who gave the piece a distinct color.

"Ars Poetica" is a chamber ensemble that has a very special place in the festival, as it's featured in multiple concerts. On October 15^th there was a concert that opened with your piece, Comme le mouvement de l'air for solo violin. I'd like you to tell me about how you imagined the movement of the air through sound. The violin is probably the best instrument to convey this idea, that is, of course, in the hands of a very good violinist.

Yes, it's true. The idea came to me suddenly, much like many of my other works. I tried to immerse the audience in meditation, so that they would feel the vibrations of the air, to feel the waves that vary in intensity, movements of the air, to imprint this primordial feeling of existence, the feeling of being, and eventually, as the piece continues, some rhythms appear from these movements of the air, some rhythmic figures appear, dance figures. This was the structure of the piece.

Who performed it?

It was performed by Zinaida Brînzilă Coșleț, a violinist who is now a member of the "Ars Poetica" ensemble. In this concert she performed nearly all of the pieces. "Ars Poetica" was featured in the October 6^th concert with PHASMA Music. In fact, it's a collaboration between the PHASMA organization, the "Ars Poetica" ensemble and the festival. For the October 15^th and October 22^nd concerts, because we created a particular dramaturgy for each concert so that "Ars Poetica" wouldn't only perform grand, ensemble pieces in one concert and then only have solo, duo, trio pieces for the other. We made it so that "Ars Poetica" could participate in each concerts and have ensemble pieces and solo, duo, trio pieces.

On October 21^st there was a piano recital which didn't seem like it belonged in the Days of New Music Festival. Massimiliano Valeti performed Claude Debussy's Préludes. Why have this impressionist oasis in a contemporary music festival?

At first our idea was to have a themed festival, and several editions were themed, dedicated to certain sound universes, techniques, current aspects, stylistic or aesthetic, but at one point we realized that it should be more varied, for the audience, but also for the experts, and especially for the performers, to get a better understanding of contemporary music. So a better part of the festival is dedicated to contemporary classical music, which has become "classical". So all 20^th century music belongs in the Days of New Music Festival. There were editions where we performed early pieces by Bartók, by Debussy, orchestral and chamber pieces, instrumental, and from other composers that we consider icons of contemporary music. This way we never impose limits if we get a suggestion from a performer who specializes in contemporary music. The same thing that happened with other performers is also happening now. Pianist Massimiliano Valenti, who brought us a Debussy program, suggested a collaboration project as part of festivals that he participates in, to include pieces by some of our composers. This is one of the main goals of the Days of New Music Festival.

Coming up next are three more concerts where your pieces will be performed. Le canzoni che mi lasciano - The Songs that leave me is one of them. It's a very interesting approach, a string quartet but instead of the second violin there's a double bass. Can you tell me more about this piece and the ensemble that's going to perform it?

Le canzoni che lasciamo actually had a prototype. It was and is a piece called Un Viaggio Imaginario, which is made for this formula, but it's also for string orchestra. That piece was commissioned by the "Icarus" Quartet, who participated in the Spatio Musica festival in Caliere, many years later, in 2023, I got the idea to continue working on this piece out of a feeling, a whim, because there are many things dear to us that disappear along the way, including music and songs. It brings this bright or serene, light nostalgia that everything disappears, you say goodbye to things that were with you your entire life. I looked back on the elements of melody and pitch I used in Un Viaggio Imaginario through this nostalgic lens. It became the much shorter work, it became a different thing, it gained a new look. It has an interesting structure because in the first section there's Byzantine music, with ison, with heterophonies, a few of the elements that were always close. The final section is a similar, but different type. Italian madrigals, including the Renaissance kind, including multi-vocal music, are in the instrumental version and in the final section there's even a fragment of Petrarch's Sonnet 223. Musicians recite by singing, so, Quando 'l sol bagna in mar, l'aurato carro- When the Sun bathes its golden chariot in the sea. It's about parting, about nostalgia. This is how the idea came to be and this piece was created in a quiet moment. The ensemble is "Ars Poetica" and they, alongside their guests, participated in every concert of this edition. Because "Ars Poetica" doesn't usually feature a double bass, we always collaborate with musician Iurie Munteanu, so, for example, if we need a double bass, he helps us find other musicians. We still don't have brass instruments in the ensemble, but we invite guest performers. During the first concert, many participated in the PHASMA chamber concert.

"The Right to Celebration" is another one of your solo clarinet pieces and is part of a concert by two composer-performers. They'll perform their own works as well as your work. Did you dedicate it to them or did they pick it?

They picked it. I usually include one of my pieces in the festival and usually in premiere, like this year, my first violin piece, but I realized that I shouldn't refuse musicians who want to perform a certain piece, especially ones who don't live in Chișinău.

Who are these two performers?

There's Slava Cernavca, the clarinetist. He was born in Chișinău, but he's been living in Munich for a long time and performs in Germany. He had a concert in Weimar recently, and that's when I contacted him. There's also an organist. They're both composers, but the organist, Martin Sturm, learned composing at Hochschule. A composer from Chișinău who lives in Munich recommended them to me, Vladimir Baliaev, who collaborates with both of them. But they requested this clarinet piece and will perform a program that they often perform in Germany.

And what does "The Right of Celebration" represent?

It's a solo bass clarinet piece. I tried to convey the heightened emotion of a celebration through archetypal sources. And this is the clarinet, related to instruments like the Romanian alphorn or didgeridoo through the possibility of octavation through overblowing.

Like a string harmonic for wind instruments?

They're technically extensions, that's how they're written down, like the didgeridoo sound. It's an archetypal source, and at the same time a clear archetype of music, the call to attention, especially when it concerns a solemn event, "The Right to Attention". There's these call intonations, we used aksak rhythms here, again, as archetype sources. We split the main modes in such a way that in the first sections they're diatonic and then chromatic. At the end there's also voice singing. It produces this elevated emotional state, of celebration, of waiting for a festive moment, and this was the point. It came to me out of nowhere and it was finished very quickly. Actually, if I were to say, it's something that's been happening to me lately. I try to perceive rather than compose. I'd rather hear and try to convey than imagine. Imagination is secondary. This is how these pieces came to be and it's brought me a unique kind of satisfaction.