Starting at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, the Grand Hall of the Romanian Athenaeum will be the venue for the Anniversary Gala of the Union of Performing Musicians of Romania - an event marking the union's 30th anniversary - more details to follow in the next few minutes from Sebastian Gheorghiu.

Sebastian Gheorghiu joins me here in the Radio România Muzical studio. Mr. Gheorghiu, I'd like to talk a bit about tomorrow's gala. What will this event entail?

We're aiming to create a celebration, while sticking to our planned two-hour timeframe, which is why the award categories are quite concise. There are many artists who deserve the audience's applause and our recognition, as well as that of our partners who contribute to this gala, but we need to be somewhat pragmatic. After all, that's today's motto. Joining us is the "George Enescu" Philharmonic, which will provide a large portion of the artistic performances. They've been perfectly chosen to fit the spirit of this anniversary gala. We'll also have a jazz moment, since we started with jazz just now. The Amphitrio group will be performing, along with Luiza Zan. I would have loved to have the Big Band with us too, but with the orchestra already on the Athenaeum stage... who knows where we'll be holding the gala in a year or two, maybe the 35th-anniversary gala, here at the Radio Hall.

I can't wait to see that moment. I've seen several shortlists on the website. I'd like to go through each category briefly. What do these categories mean to the Union?

We have three categories. Let's start with the first, which we've named "Anniversary Awards," where we're primarily focused on history and those who've been with us from the start. Here, we'll be awarding the orchestras whose members were among the founding members of this association. Currently, the association has over 10,500 members, but it started with just 200. Of course, it wasn't just at the beginning; we've been collaborating with all the philharmonics and opera houses in Romania for years, working on joint projects, and it's a great joy to reunite. The next category is for lifetime achievement, where we hope to have with us all those we've considered, including Anatol Covali, Nicolae Maxim, Varujan Cozighian, Tiberiu Ungureanu, and Aurelian Octav Popa - artists of world renown, without exaggeration, who have reached a certain age, and we all feel the need to embrace them and show them this distinction. I'm not even sure if I should mention Mr. Aurelian Octav Popa's joke about it possibly being the last award he receives.

I believe it's more of a heartfelt award.

Absolutely. We're bringing these artists to Romania's most important stage, where they truly belong. It's also very good for younger generations to recognize these people, whom we often only hear on the radio.

I assume that as the organizer of this event, you also have expectations, based on other similar events you've organized - how do you recall such moments?

I want to tell you that in the last decade, as we've reached this anniversary milestone, where we're reflecting a bit on what's happened recently, we've had 286 projects. That's an average of about 28 projects per year, and I'm primarily thinking of the "IConArts" Academy and Festival, which is now in its 23rd edition. Each time, we've had a gala like this, where young master's students or participants in these summer courses and the festival, which takes place during the summer in Transylvania, were awarded. Now, coming to the main stage, having an impressive array of artists with us, and dedicating this event to thousands of other people who are behind the scenes and are members, it creates a fantastic emotion for me, and I hope to carry the entire event through successfully, because it's very difficult to perform at your highest level in front of your own members, your colleagues.