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Interview with Răzvan Rădos, conductor of the Radio Children’s Choir

Monday, 12 May 2025 , ora 11.27
 

Mr. Răzvan Rădos, on Saturday, May 10th, 2025, the public is invited to a special concert through which the Radio Children's Choir will be celebrating 80 years of existence. I'd like to ask you to briefly walk us through the ensemble's history and share with usyour dearest memories about the Radio Children's Choir.

The Radio Children's Choir was founded in 1945 and its track record places it among the most important ensembles of its kind in the world. It had five exceptional conductors leading it over time: maestro Ion Vanica, who founded it, then Elena Vicică, Teodor Carțiș, Eugenia Văcărescu-Necula and maestro Voicu Popescu. I have some very pleasant memories about the Radio Children's Choir, especially from my student days when I never missed attending their concerts. In 2011 I had the pleasure of participating in the choir's rehearsals for six months within a program organized by the National University of Music Bucharest, during which I could admire and understand how this ensemble functions, what its workflow is like and how it succeeds in achieving such beautiful performances.


At the concert on Saturday, May 10th, alongside the current members of the ensemble, alumni will also be on the scene, as well as the one whose name has been tied to the Radio Children's Choir for 30 years, conductor Voicu Popescu. How are the rehearsals going and who are the other special guests of this concert?

Tuesday night was the all-round rehearsal on the stage at Sala Radio, together with our colleagues from the technical department, members of the Choir School workshop, maestro Voicu Popescu, naturally and, of course, several dozen former members of our choir. The atmosphere is hard to describebecause it was uniquely special, both because of the emotions of the former members, who were able to admire the current choir and sing a few pieces alongside us, and through the meeting between the children currently making up the choir and maestro Voicu Popescu. Naturally, this 80 year anniversary concert is also a moment of reflection, a moment in which we recall the choir's past with great joy, delight and reverence, while also thinking of strategies to excel in the future.

The event is a beautiful story of the choir then and now, because it invites former members of the choir on the stage to perform beautiful vocal pieces that they sang decades ago on the same stage, back when they were children. Conductor Voicu Popescu will be in attendance alongside us, as we said, and performing will be former members: Roxana Constantinescu, Gabriela Mădincă Dobre, Gabriela Damian, Miruna Toma, as well as percussionists Ilinca Lorencz, Iasmina Topală and Cristiana Anghel. Members of the Choir School workshop will also go on stage to bring a spirited touch and offer a musical homage to the history of the Radio Children's Choir. The concert will be hosted by Mr. Dragoș Huluba and Ms. Delia Nartea, herself also an alumnus of our choir.


Over time, your public has come to expect thematic concerts and interesting programs. Will moments from previous concerts be recalled in this performance?

The program of the May 10th concert will recall important moments from the choir's entire history. We searched the Radio Archives for scores that are iconic to each of the Radio Children's Choir's conductors' styles, pieces that led to important results in their international tours or moments that marked points of evolution in the choir's history. This way, the public will walk this path again alongside us, maybe even gain a better understanding of how forming such a choir was possible, while also enjoying every way the choir has evolved over the years, both in repertoire and style.


What do the Radio Children's Choir's future plans look like? What projects are you preparing and what are your long term goals?

We'll remain on our path, by which I mean we'll continue to explore conceptual choir performances and we'll periodically attend major international choir events. At the end of the month we'll be in Switzerland, at Basel, one of the most prestigious choir festivals in the world, and at the beginning of June we'll be in Bulgaria, attending a traditional music festival. On June 20th, 2025 we'll be closing off the National Radio Orchestra's performance with Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, alongside the Radio Academic Choir.

Interview by Ana Sireteanu
Translated by Alexandra Teodora Ciolacu,
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I
Corrected by Silvia Petrescu