'What is different about the 'Ionel Perlea' Festival and National Competition of lied interpretation is that the festival is almost entirely backed by performers who are also represented in the jury. In the competition, the cultural centres from Cluj Napoca and Bucharest have the priority. Also, performers from Constanta, Timisoara and Iasi are expected. The programme is now a tradition, a fifteen minutes performance of Livia Teodorescu Ciocanea lieder as well, which she especially composed, with verses by Nicolae Coman, for this edition of the Festival. We have several special moments during the Festival, we remind our audience of Tiberiu Brediceanu's music with the performance of Nicoleta Colcear from Timisoara, we give an ovation in the memory of the one who was the compositional professor of George Enescu, Jules Massenet, and we also perform a masterpiece of the lied Romantic literature, the 'Dichterliebe' (The Poet's Love) by Robert Schumann, in the interpretation of the Cluj National Opera soloist, tenor Tiberiu Simu.

The next day, on 5^th May, we will launch a poetry creation of a poet from Slobozia, Ilie Coroinita, whose verses were offered to several composers and we will listen for the first time the lieder inspired by them, and afterwards, we will enjoy Baroque music, English and Spanish, in the interpretation of Claudia Codreanu, with verses by Goethe.

The Festival will end on its third day, on 6^th May, 2012, of course, with the gala and the award ceremony and with the recital of the baritone from Constanta, who was the winner of last year's Festival. We also have Ionut Bogdan Stefanescu as a guest and with his golden flute, will perform, together with Veronica Maier works by Franz-Schubert, lieder without verses, because the voice is replaced by his golden flute.

We have a full schedule, an attractive one and I believe that it will make history, and not only in the musical life of Slobozia.'