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Interview with Smaranda Oțeanu-Bunea
Within the "Musicrit" Gala, Mrs. Oțeanu-Bunea was granted the "In Memoriam Grigore Constantinescu" award for her entire activity. Founder member of the Union of Music Critics, Editors and Producers from Romania, Mrs. Smaranda Oțeanu-Bunea offered Ana Sireteanu the following statement regarding the award received:
Certainly, over time, we have received various trophies and medals, but this award is truly special. First of all, that is because it's the first edition of the "Musicrit" awards. This moment was of great emotion for me, because many of my colleagues were also present in the room and this award marks the 40 years of activity that we had. This is the truth, it was 40 years of activity under Grigore Constantinescu's baton, this is the reason why the award is named "In Memoriam Grigore Constantinescu". We were a team: Sava, Vartolomei, Alfred Hoffman, Totoviceanu, Daniela Caraman-Fotea and many, many others. We were a team that worked around the clock for Romanian musical life and, moreover, also under the baton of Grigore, we managed to link all of our projects to the needs of musical life.
This award is not mine, it is a grant offered to the whole team, from my point of view. Also, our focus was on the young audience, an issue that will never end. That's why we came up with the Comic Opera for Children in 2000, which I have founded together with everyone. Then in 2017 we created the "Stela Popescu" Theater and in 2019 the "Ambasadorii" Musical Theatre, three lyrical institutions, each with its own specifics, but with only one plea sustained by all: value, education and great art, because otherwise we had nothing to strive for. As I said, we were a team and we were very receptive about every event that we planted in the artistic life. Actually, we were building a second musical map of the country, and we were very keen not to lose any kind of occasion that helped us move forward. I receive this distinction with great emotion.
Translated by Ioana Negrea,
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II
Corrected by Silvia Petrescu