The UCMR Awards Gala, 52nd edition, has chosen its winners on Monday 8th April 2023 at the National Opera in Bucharest.

Among the winners, the composer Adrian Iorgulescu, who won the Grand Prize, for his entire creative activity, the composer Doina Rotaru, who received the prize for Fatum for the chamber ensemble and the composer Ulpiu Vlad, for In the light of evocation - George Enescu.

Every year, the UCMR jury awards prizes to the most valuable creations in the field of music for the previous year. For the first time in its history, the event took place in the form of a performance, in which the Representative Music of the Ministry of National Defence, conducted by Colonel Aurel Gheorghiță, who opened the show on the stage of the National Opera, the Radio Children's Choir, conducted by Răzvan Rădos, the jazz duet Nadia Trohin (voice) and Mircea Tiberian (piano), the Ensemble Flaut Power, conducted by Ion-Bogdan Ștefănescu.

The event was attended by many personalities from the cultural and artistic world, journalists and critics, as well as the music-loving public in general.

Dan Dediu, President of the Romanian Union of Composers and Musicologists, said at the end of the event: "With this UCMR Awards Gala we have thrown a pebble into the ocean of information that surrounds us, in the hope that it will generate a wave. In time, I would like this wave to turn into a tsumani. Romanian cultural life needs such a thing: tsunamis of positive energy, professional friendship, good taste and altruism."

The winners of the 2023 Romanian Composers and Musicologists Union Awards Gala are:

GRAND PRIZE: Adrian IORGULESCU

For the whole creative activity

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC AND MULTIMEDIA SECTION

- symphonic work:

Ulpiu VLAD- In the light of evocation - George Enescu

- concert work:

Dan DEDIU - World's First Fear - concert for flute and orchestra

- chamber work:

Doina ROTARU - Fatum for chamber ensemble

FANFARE SUBSECTION

Alexandru BIRIȘ - Bistritan Rhapsody nr. 1 for wind orchestra

VOCAL MUSIC SECTION

- large choral work:

Valentin GRUESCU - Extensive carol, mixed a cappella choir, text: George Coșbuc

- Vocal-symphonic work:

Laurențiu BELDEAN - TEKMIRIO "Document" - extended chamber music

JAZZ-POP MUSIC SECTION

- Jazz or instrumental music - ex-aequo

Dan PAVELESCU - Oriental waltz, instrumental

-Nicolae CARAGIA -România Mare, instrumental

- Melody or group of melodies:

Alexandru NEȘ-Ți-aș fi fost , lyrics: Roberta Rizac

- Performance:

Viorel GAVRILĂ -Dă, Doamne, cântec - theatrical performance

MUSICOLOGY SECTION

- Systematic musicology, ethnomusicology and folklore, sacred music research:

Corneliu Dan GEORGESCU - Atemporal Music Archetypes. Romanian Composers Studies and Essays in Musicology - vol. III. Monotony - an aesthetic principle, Music publishing house, 2022

- Historiography, lexicography, critical editions, anthologies:

Florinela POPA- Music and ideologies in the 20th century, Music publishing house, 2022

- Publicity (collection of reviews, interviews, essays, radio or television material, concert programmes, record brochures or anthologies on Romanian music):

Alex VASILIU - Duet on the score of time. Conversations with Ioan Morna, Music publishing house, 2022

THE CLUJ BRANCH PRIZE

Hans Peter TÜRK - Das Kreuz (from the Epitaph cycle, for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra)

The Romanian Composers' and Musicologists' Union (UCMR) has existed since 1920, when it was founded under the name of the Romanian Composers' Society (SRC). The first edition of the UCMR Awards Gala took place in 1967.