About Us

In 2025, The Choir of the George Enescu Philharmonic celebrates the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding.

On 1 December 1950, when the legendary Constantin Silvestri founded the Choir, there was an urgent need for a revival. The history of choral music precedes instrumental music by many centuries, and at least quantitatively speaking, it still held supremacy even when the major symphonic works of the nineteenth century were being written. Up until the mid-twentieth century, however, works from the major vocal-symphonic repertoire had been performed only sporadically in Romania, either by private choirs or by ad hoc groups of professionals and amateurs, who did not always rise to the standard of the Philharmonic Orchestra.

The formation of the State Choir completely transformed public perceptions of classical music. Tireless and varied in the concerts it gave, which take in oratorios, missae solemnes, motets, and a cappella music, the vocal ensemble has performed all the masterpieces of the genre, from Monteverdi to Bach, Haydn, and Brahms, and even avant-garde contemporary works. The musical results always surpass every expectation on the part of the audience. When the Choir and the Orchestra perform together, the formidable acoustics of the Athenaeum take on new life, amplifying and swelling vast, dazzling sounds that are as overwhelming as they are rousing. At such moments, the experience is one of performance elevated to the absolute.

Like their instrumentalist colleagues, the members of the Choir often step to the fore individually, taking on the part of soloists in large-scale works or appearing in recitals of arias and lieders. A spirit of competition and musical excellence is thereby fostered, which is also bolstered by the Choir’s collaboration with leading conductors such as George Georgescu, Igor Markevitch, Georges Pretre, Lawrence Foster, Sergiu Comissiona, Cristian Mandeal, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

The number of opera, operetta, and vocal-symphonic singers, not to mention music teachers and musicologists, who have begun their careers as members of the Philharmonic Choir is impressive. In addition to the Philharmonic’s original vocal quartet, whose members were, Emilia Petrescu, Martha Kessler, Aurel Alecsandrescu, and Alexandru Voinescu, other Choir members who have made their mark internationally include Steliana Calos, Victoria Drăgănescu, Iulia Isaev, Laura Niculescu, Sanda Şandru, Iulia Buciuceanu, Elena Cernei, Ştefan Pruteanu, and Marius Rinzler. Also worthy of note are: Elena Stancu, Lavinia Mamot, Olga Csorvasi, Sidonia Nica, Geanina Munteanu, Gabriela Drăguşin, Adina Iuraşcu, Mihaela Mărăcineanu, Liana Podlovsky, Vladimir Deveselu, Eugen Savopol, Mircea Ciurez, Anatol Covali, Nicolae Ionescu, Mihnea Lamatic, Vasile Micu, Vasile Schuler, Ion Dimieru, Ştefan Ignat, Răzvan Georgescu, and Constantin Cocriş.

Despite its prestige and the repertoire to which it had dedicated itself, in the 1980s the Philharmonic Choir was forced to take part in propaganda spectacles organized by the communist régime, which were not lacking in summons to perform without notice or the humiliation of miming to playback. From 1945 to 1989, concert programs also included explicitly political vocal-symphonic works, as well as folk kitsch in keeping with the régime’s nationalist ideology.

Since 1990, the Choir of the George Enescu Philharmonic has taken part in numerous special events in Romania’s musical life. In 1995, the Choir had the opportunity to work with Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and in 1998, it performed a concert version of George Enescu’s opera Œdipe with the Orchestre Nationale de France and Lawrence Foster, as part of the George Enescu International Festival. Since 1997, the Philharmonic Choir has been conducted by pianist Iosif Ion Prunner, a member of one of Romania’s most renowned families of musicians and intellectuals. Prunner encourages both explorations of the choral repertoire of every age and recitals of lieder by individual members of the Choir, to which more often than not he provides the piano accompaniment.

Having long since become part of the European circuit, the Philharmonic Choir tours internationally and has made a name for itself in the concert halls of Spain, France, Italy, Bulgaria, and Greece. Recent notable achievements include partnerships with leading international orchestras and conductors at the George Enescu Festival: Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin (Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces, 2013) and Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic (Enesco’s Œdipe, 2017, a production that has gone on to open the London Philharmonic’s current season).