In an interview given many decades ago- before 1977, when he left the country, cellist Cătălin Ilea stated: "The warm and generous tone is characteristic for the Romanian cello school, it is very specific for our instrument which consecrated us on everywhere on Earth.

This mellow, rich tone highlighted by an interpretative ardent temper with extensive phrasing and a carefully polished stylistic relief, also detaches from the recordings of Master Ilea (which are not many, but kept in the radio's library) or from the diverse repertoire engraved on the discs launched in the country and abroad.Concert soloist, a remarkable partner in chamber music, but also a professor, Cătălin Ilea has also linked his name with promoting Enescu's opera, not only by including it as frequently as possible through his recitals and concert programs or in his discography, but also by realizing some concert projects, some small festival in Berlin, meant to bring forth different opuses composed by George Enescu.

Born in Banat, educated at Cluj and then at the National University of Music Bucharest, Cătălin Ilea has become a member of the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra since his college years, later continuing his carrer with the Philharmonic Orchestra as a soloist. Master Cătălin Ilea has boldy talked about the decades spent in the world of music, about encounters that had marked his artistic path, about the routes that he travelled with his cello, but also about many of his contemporaries in a phone conversation made for the "Music and Life" series .

Tuesday, the 21^st of March from 19:00 o'clock, the first of the three editions have cellist Cătălin Ilea on the microphone, with music sheets recorded by the master and with other sound files, but also with memories about "Music and Life"...! In rerun: Saturday, from 13:00. (The shows are then available on the România Muzical website at https://www.romania-muzical.ro/emisiuni/.)