George Enescu's Sanctus Seraphino violin - in the spotlight at Targu Mures concert

The 1739 Sanctus Seraphino violin which belonged to George Enescu and his student, Yehudi Menuhin, will be in the spotlight on Wednesday, at the concert violinist Vlad Stanculeasa and the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra led by Hasan Niyazi Tura will be giving at the Palace of Culture in Targu Mures, under the banner of the George Enescu International Festival.

Vlad Stanculeasa is a musician with a rich career that saw him perform alongside highly acclaimed fellow violinists such as Maxim Vengerov, Janine Jansen, Viktoria Mullova and Ana Chumachenco, and has won prizes at the George Enescu International Violin Competition, the Renata Molinari Competition and the Valsesia Musica Competition, including the 2007 Enescu Prize for the best rendition of George Enescu's Impressions d'enfance (Childhood Impressions). As a soloist, he has performed with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Lausanne and Basel Chamber Orchestras, the Korean Chamber Orchestra, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, under the batons of Kent Nagano, Lahav Shani and Han Na Chang. He was concertmaster of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (2010-2019), previously holding the same position with the Spanish National Orchestra and the Basel Chamber Orchestra. He is currently concertmaster of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. (...) Sanculeasa plays a 1739 Sanctus Seraphino violin, which once belonged to George Enescu and Yehudi Menuhin, generously loaned by the Tharice Foundation in Switzerland, the Targu Mures State Philharmonic Orchestra said on Facebook.

As a guest concertmaster, Vlad Stanculeasa has collaborated with ensembles such as Bamberger Symphoniker, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Roma, Singapore Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, WDR Cologne, Bern Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, working with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach and Marek Janowski.

"Founder and artistic director of the NUME Academy and Festival in Italy, Vlad Stanculeasa has deepened his exploration of musical phenomenology under the guidance of Konrad von Abel. In 2021 he earned a Master's in Orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium, with Daniel Gazon," the Targu Mures State Philharmonic Orchestra also said.

At Wednesday's concert in Targu Mures, held under the aegis of the George Enescu International Festival, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Hasan Niyazi Tura, who enjoys international recognition as a composer as well. Tura is the 2004 winner of the first prize in the 'Large-Scale Symphonic Works' category of the National Composition Competition organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Türkiye, with his Symphony No. 1. He premiered Cemal Resit Rey's Violin Concerto in 2006. In 2007 he composed 'Sehitler Oratoryosu' (Oratorio for the Martyred) based on a libretto by retired General Aytaç Yalman, a work commemorating Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the fallen in the Gallipoli battle.

Hasan Niyazi Tura pursued conducting studies under Prof. Gürer Aykal and completed his master's degree with Prof. Rengim Gökmen at the Hacettepe State Conservatory in Ankara in 2010.

He has conducted numerous state symphony and opera orchestras in Türkiye and internationally, including the London Chamber Orchestra (UK), the Central Saxony Philharmonic (Germany), North Czech Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Savaria Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), Athens State Orchestra (Greece), Sliven Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria) and Karaganda Symphony Orchestra (Kazakhstan), the Targu Mures State Philharmonic Orchestra informs.

Hasan Niyazi Tura's compositions include the Clarinet Concerto, which premiered in Qatar (2012), the ballet Aspendos: A Love Through Centuries (2013), the symphonic poem Sehidin Türküsü (2015), commissioned by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, and Konçertango, which premiered in Germany.

He was named 'Composer of the Year' by Andante Magazine in 2016 and received multiple composition awards in 2020 and 2022. Since 2018, Hasan Niyazi Tura has been holding the position of assistant conductor of the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, and since 2021 he has served as its principal conductor.

The September 10 concert slated at the Targu Mures Palace of Culture is a project financed by the Government of Romania through the Ministry of Culture, organized by Artexim and carried out in partnership with the Artproduction Foundation, the Yunus Emre Institute and the George Enescu International Festival.

The evening's program will include the Ballad for Violin and Orchestra by George Enescu, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 64 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Sunny Landscapes by Cemal Resit Rey, and Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No.1 in C major, Op. 21. A