Bucharest's Athenaeum to host Christmas concert this week

A concert of Christmas music is scheduled to take place at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest this week, on December 8.

The concert is delivered by the Preludiu chamber music choir and the Romanian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Andrei Stănculescu. Soprano Diana Alexe, mezzo-soprano Ştefania Chiţulescu, contralto Andreea Iftimescu, tenor Andrei Lazăr, and baritone Jinxin Chen are the soloists.

The program includes Camille Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, works by Richard Oschanitzky, Gheorghe Cucu, Alexandru Paşcanu, Valentin Teodorian, Paul Constantinescu, and Christmas songs such as Le Roi des cieux, Noël Nouvelet, and Cantique de Noël. The program is available here.

“This concert is my debut on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum, an honor and an immense responsibility for any Romanian musician and not only. Fortunately, I have with me two extraordinary ensembles I know, and I have worked with before. None of them needs an introduction, but I want to say that it rarely happens for two groups of such level to be under one roof, in this case, the National Art Center Romanian Youth,” conductor Andrei Stănculescu commented.

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