Vibrate festival in Romania gives audience reasons to go for classical music

For a third year this June, the vibrate! festival will open in the central Romania city of Brașov, bringing classical music to unusual settings, an international line-up and cross-over events. Young Romanian musician Vlad Maistorovici set up the festival. He is a violinist, who performs a repertoire ranging from classical to modern, and a composer, whose music has been performed by world-class ensembles, like the London Symphony Orchestra, which recorded his Halo piece. He tells Romania-insider.com about the program of this edition of the festival, including a concert on clay at the local Tennis Arena, and about his experience with performing and composing. Was there a specific moment when you knew you wanted to take on composition? I started composing when I was 9, so it was all very instinctive. I was set on becoming a violinist when I went on to study at The Yehudi Menuhin School. At 17 I won a composition prize at the Enescu Competition with no formal studies, and I met Ștefan Niculescu, who was the chairman of the jury. He was a very luminous figure that somehow put the idea inside my head that I had a duty to become a composer. I suppose that's when I decided to be professional about it. How do the two roles - violin playing and composition- balance each other today? It is sometimes a challenge to balance the two. But I need them both in my life. As a performer I submit myself to the universe of the composer, I invest my energy and time to embody that music. It's creative, but within boundaries of style, taste, message. The greatest satisfaction is human contact, the high of performing in front of the audience, the energy exchange with the orchestra. Composing is more solitary, you are working by yourself most of the time. But you have the privilege to set the game for the performers. It's a huge responsibility, and a huge satisfaction when performers get excited about your music. What do you keep in mind throughout the process of composing and what do you hope to communicate? I think music should communicate emotion. Of course, we study many years to master every device, technique and so on, and that is all challenging. European music has had a rational basis for hundreds of years, even when incorporating exotic elements. But all of that is in the service of communicating in a way that no other language can. I try to express that which cannot be easily verbalized. Where do you take your influences and references from? I like taking my subjects from the mainstream, but then I let my music go to remote places of the imaginary. Almost all my pieces can be listened to in this key. Who were some of the figures influencing your playing and composing in the past?