> [Archived] Interviews

Archived : 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 |

Interview with pianist Florian Mitrea, founder of the “Hoinar” Festival

Thursday, 16 May 2024 , ora 10.41
 

The "Hoinar" Festival ends on Tuesday, May 14th, 2024, with a recital at the Romanian Atheneum. Pianist Florian Mitrea, the festival's founder, shares more details about the events in the 7th edition in a conversation with Ioana Țintea.


Florian Mitrea, what did this year's festival include, and what were the main aspects you considered when designing the event program for the Hoinar Festival?

The "Hoinar Festival-the Carnival Edition" was a festival of stories. Our goal was to share four different stories with the audience.

We began with a show that traced a narrative arc from youth to old age, titled "Songs of the Clown." Pianist Daria Tudor and mezzo-soprano Verena Tönjes delivered a program of lieder centered on the theme of the clown, featuringworks by Kowalski, Korngold, and Kurt Weill. It was a song recital with a dramatic storyline and script that the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

The following day, Saturday morning, we had a matinee at the Teatrul ACT, a show for both children and parents, "A fost odată un pian" ("There once was a piano"). This was another unique recital, just like the song recital, featuring piano music inspired by fairy tales and stories. The performance was held in semi-darkness, with illustrations and text displayed on a screen narrating the fairytale while we played the corresponding pieces on the piano, like a soundtrack.It was sold out, and the venue was full of very attentive children who sat and listened to an hour of the greatest piano music ever written.

On Sunday evening, we had a completely different kind of show. The performance of "La Voix Humaine" by Francis Poulenc, an exceptional opera for a single actress and a pianist.It tells the story of an ordinary person confronted with an extraordinary life situation. Once again, it was a sold-out performance as there wereno tickets left. The feedback from the audience was wonderful.They told us they never thought opera could be so intimate; usually, opera is a grand genre with elaborate sets and fantastic direction.We were delighted by this feedback, and after the opera, we held adiscussion with an invited psychologist, a writer, an actor, and the rector of UNATC, Liviu Lucaci. We talked about what we can learn from this type of performance.

Today finds us at the Athenaeum; we've gathered here for rehearsals because tomorrow, starting at 7 p.m., marks the closing night, which also bears the title of this year's edition, "Carnival."We're concluding the festival symmetrically... with another recital, once again spanning the arc between youth and old age-Brahms and Saint-Saëns, representing the two opposite poles of life, in youth and old age.And, of course, we're ending with the timeless"The Carnival of the Animals," presented uniquely, with texts, with poems recited on the Athenaeum stage alongside us by actress Alexandrina Halic.


Why do you think it's important to organize cultural events like the Hoinar Festival?

Our goal was to create an unconventional classical music festival. Particularly with this edition, we wanted to appeal to a wider audience, including those who don't usually go to opera or concert halls. We wanted to be a festival for everyone. That's why we ventured, for instance, into therealm of independent theater, which breaks down barriers, challenges traditional labels, and, in a sense, liberates art. The audience becomes part of the artistic act; there's no longer that barrier between the stage and the audience.

We feel deeply honored to perform on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum, in thistemple of classical music. Nevertheless, even at the Athenaeum, we seek to introduce a different dimension that may captivate a much wider audience. That's why all our events have incorporated this element of the human voice, of recited or sung text that speaks directly to the listeners, devoid of abstract elements and comprehensible to all age groups.


Despite residing in the UK for many years, you constantly return to Romania for various projects such as the Hoinar Festival. What motivates you to come back to the Romanian stage?

Home will always be home! It's where my educational journey began. I was incredibly fortunate to have emerged from such a well-structured music education system, and to have been exposed to everything that Romanian musical life has to offer, from which I've learned so much. I'll never stop saying that my education here was paramount. Certainly, I continued my specialization at university under my last mentor, Boris Petrushansky, in Imola, but the foundation, the groundwork, was laid here. And we have a remarkable musical school that deserves support.It's not just a value of the past, not just of today... it's built on an extraordinary tradition.

With the Hoinar Festival, my aim was to give something back to my country. In fact, the Hoinar Festival began in 2016 as an educational project. We visited schools, selected piano students from specialized music education, and organized workshops, masterclasses, and provided professional consultancy because I believed I could help them in this regard-leveraging my competition experience, for instance, or guiding them in career development, finding their path post-graduation, which is quite challenging, it's a very disorienting period when you finish college and are unsure of your next steps.

I will always be deeply connected to Romania. Recently, I've been traveling across the country as well. I've been to Iași, to Constanța... and I've found some ensembles in music colleges that are committed to excellence, and I'm delighted thatthey believe I can help them.

Interview by Ioana Țintea
Translated by Alina-Gabriela Ariton,
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I
Corrected by Silvia Petrescu