Statue of famous Romanian composer Enescu unveiled at start of classical music festival in Bucharest

A new statue of Romanian composer George Enescu has been unveiled in Bucharest as the classical music festival celebrating his work begins in the capital. The statue, donated to the Bucharest municipality by the family of sculptor Constantin Baraschi, is located at the crossroad between the George Enescu street and the Magheru boulevard downtown Bucharest (in picture). The new statue, unveiled on the opening day of the George Enescu festival, is not the only one of the composer in the city with another located in front of the Romanian Opera. The 2013 edition of festival, which brings some of the world’s finest orchestral musicians to the country, continues to attract thousands of foreign tourists to Romania. “Around 20,000 tickets and subscriptions were sold to foreigners,” said Valentin Vasiloiu, Eventim.ro executive manager, quoted by local business publication Zf.ro. He also added that only 7000 out of the 40,000 tickets put up for sale for this year’s edition of the festival, which is organized once every two years, were still available. Over 150 events are scheduled to take place from September 1 to 28 for the 2013 George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and several other cities including Arad, Bacau, Brasov, Cluj, Iasi, Oradea, Sibiu and Timisoara. One of the most charismatic American actors, John Malkovich, two times nominated for Academy Award, will come for the first time in Romania in September this year, when he will play the role of a serial killer in The Infernal Comedy – Confessions of a Serial Killer. The event is part of the George Enescu festival program, which also includes Vortice Dance Company’s Dracula show and Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung (Der Ring des Nibelungen) tetralogy perfomance. More about the festival and the entire program here. George Enescu, born in 1881 in a village in the Botosani county in Northern Romania, is considered one of the most important Romanian musicians. He was a composer, violinist, pianist and conductor. He studied in Vienna, and the Viennese press nicknamed him a Romanian Mozart at the time. He had his debut as a violinist at 8. After Vienna, he continued his studies in Paris, and at 17, he already composed his first piece, Poema Romana. At the same age, he started giving violin lessons. Among his students were the likes of Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux and Yehudi Menuhin. The latter kept a profound admiration for his Romanian teacher. Enescu died in 1955 in Paris, and is buried at the Père Lachaise cemetery in the French capital. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Arhivafoto.ro)