My guest this evening is a young artist with a first name predestined for a career in opera. She is soprano Aida Pascu. Welcome to the Radio România Muzical studio, Aida!

Welcome and thank you for the invitation.

Aida Pascu, first of all, I would like to ask you if your first name (Aida) brought you closer to Verdi's music.

It will certainly be a very interesting experience when I sing this very role, Verdi's Aida, but the name itself didn't bring me closer, but the family and the fact that I had a childhood and all my growing up was basically musical.

Now I want to congratulate you because your most recent success, isn't it, is called the special Young Artist of the Year award that you were given by ICMA, the International Classical Music Awards, which are basically the Oscars of classical music. How do you feel?

I'm still processing this information, honestly. I woke up and received so many warm congratulations from people, including people I hadn't spoken to for a long time, who saw the news on Radio România Muzical and I was very pleasantly surprised, honoured, first of all by the reaction of my loved ones and close ones. Honoured is the key word.

Today the list of winners was published. There were 375 nominations, artists and albums, and the jury awarded 10 special prizes and 16 awards for audio-visual production, all the more deserving of a special award because, lo and behold, you are among the 10 artists awarded a special prize. I would like to quote from the jury's published reasoning for this award. I quote: "The young Romanian soprano Aida Pascu, 24 years old, surprises with her beautiful lirico spinto voice, with a dark, convincing and mature timbre, as well as a wonderful stage presence: she has everything she needs to become a star of the opera stage". Please tell me, does this description fit you?

It's more praise, I don't know what to say, but yes, in itself, the idea of being a lyrically spinto soprano is what defines me at the moment. I'm moving towards a more dramatic repertoire with time. So, for now, this is my repertoire as a lyric soprano and spinto soprano.

The ICMA jury is made up of professional music critics from important magazines and radio stations in Europe, including Radio România Muzical, represented by our colleague Cristina Comandașu, who also nominated you and another detail, you are the second artist nominated by Radio România Muzical to win an ICMA award after composer Sebastian Androne Nakanishi. How did this proposal come about?

I made my debut in 2022, in December, in Sofia. It was my first role, Mimi from Boema. Through the company of Raina Kabaivanska, with whom I still work in Italy, and then with my colleagues from the masterclass, we did a very beautiful production in Sofia, which was echoed in Romania, of course. People found out about this production and later I started to have other concerts in Italy and Romania. In the meantime, Mrs. Comandașu knew me from the "Heirs of Musical Romania" scholarship and then she proposed me this participation in ICMA, which I honestly would not have thought of participating in before, because it was something prestigious, it was a real honour, as I said at the beginning, and the result was unexpected.

You are one of the recipients of the Heirs of Musical Romania scholarship, a project initiated by Radio România Muzical. Do you think this scholarship has helped you in your career so far?

Absolutely. By giving me new opportunities. Of course, all opportunities for young people automatically mean stage experience, which is very important, but not only stage in my case, but also recordings that I had never done before.

You're talking about special recordings.

Special recordings at Radio, with lieder that I did last summer and it whetted my appetite for recording. It was such a beautiful experience.

Will these recordings end up on your first album?

I think so.

I take it your future projects include a debut album, then.

I hope so.

Back to the ICMA awards. You can find the whole list on the Radio România Muzical website. It includes names like Renaud Capucon, Jordi Savall, Antonio Pappano, Hilary Hahn, Parvo Jarvi, Francois-Xavier Roth, you will meet these artists or most of them at the ICMA gala, because there will be a gala on April 12th in Valencia.

Yes. To Valencia, where I'm very happy to return. I've only been to Spain once, to Valencia itself, because my father used to sing at the opera and I was happy to be there again and of course to have the opportunity to meet such great artists. I can't even imagine what it will feel like and the joy of speaking Spanish again, a language I haven't spoken since high school.

I was talking about the Heirs of Musical Romania scholarship. Would you encourage your classmates to apply for this scholarship?

Of course I did, and as far as I can remember, I had year mates, instrumentalists, who participated and were awarded. So it is an opportunity that very few organisations, few people in Romania, offer to young people.

Radio România Muzical is doing this, supporting young artists through this project, the Heirs of Musical Romania. You have already appeared on important stages, and I'm only referring to two of them, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre and the Bucharest National Opera, haven't you? What was this experience like for a young artist who is practically at the beginning of her career?

I had to go and give it my all. It was of course a challenge, both in Bucharest and in Florence, Italy, all the more so because nobody in Italy knew me, it was my debut there and we are talking about the homeland of opera and the city where opera was born. It was somewhat overwhelming for me, but I didn't have much time to think about these emotions, because I had a lot of rehearsals, an intense rehearsal schedule and I also made new friends. It was a time that I keep in my heart, and of course Bucharest is the theatre where I grew up and I am very grateful that I was given the chance to sing on this stage.

In your CV there are some important roles, Mimi in Puccini's Boema, Nedda in Paiațe, Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni. Do you have a special affinity for certain roles or are you still experimenting?

Of course, one can say that I experiment, but as a style I can say that I find myself very much in verismo and Puccini's operas. In Puccini's writing my voice feels particularly comfortable as opposed to belcanto or Mozart.

What are your plans for 2024? We already know, April 12th, Valencia. Is there anything else happening in your programme until then?

Yes, as far as I know, because it just happens to happen literally overnight, for now as far as I know I will have a concert in Vienna on February 6^th through the theatre of Modena with whom I have collaborated in the past and October-November is a time when I will debut in Rossini's Moise in Egitto as Elcia. Also at the theatre of Modena, it's a tour together with the theatre of Piacenza and the theatre of Reggio Emilia, so Rossini.

Not verismo, not Puccini.

Not verismo, so a challenge.

And on Romanian stages?

Next week, on January 27th, I will make my debut at the Brasov Opera with Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

Aida Pascu, once again, congratulations for this award, the ICMA Young Artist of the Year Award, and we look forward to seeing you in the Radio România Muzical studio to tell us about your other successes.