Gabriela Bejan is a young musicologist passionate about popular music and popular culture. She studied musicology at the National University of Music Bucharest (UNMB) and is currently pursuing a PhD at the same institution under Prof. Valentina Sandu-Dediu, with a research on The Phenomenon of Pop Music in Romania in the Second Half of the 20th Century. Influences and Parallels with the West.

She has written articles and interviews for specialised publications like Acord, Actualitatea muzicală, and online on CIMRO. She also participated in symposia of the Chei Festival, Meridian Festival, Romanian Archive of Concertos Symposium (RAC) and Romanian Archive of Symphonic Music Symposium (RASM). Her recent studies, “Violin and Orchestra Concerto by Dumitru Capoianu” and “Aspects of the Concert Overture after 1950 in Romanian Music. Three Case Studies: Pascal Bentoiu, Aurel Stroe, Dan Dediu”, were published in the RAC and RASM volumes (coordinated by Prof. Florinela Popa). She is currently editor at Editura UNMB and teaches Music History at UNMB.

Alina Bottez is associate professor of British Literature, Cultural Studies, and Adaptation Studies at the University of Bucharest, as well as a performing soprano. Her main research interests are Shakespeare Studies and the intertwinement between literature and the other arts, especially music. She has published extensively and given lectures at universities in Istanbul, Barcelona, Venice, Tomar, Seville, Athens, Palma de Mallorca, and Lecce. She has been co-convening seminars at the ESRA Conferences in Rome, Athens, Budapest, and Porto. She has delivered papers at many international conferences and is, among others, the author of a chapter in Othello in European Culture (John Benjamins, 2022) and two books – A Confluence between Masterpieces: Operas Inspired by Shakespeare’s Plays (Editura Muzicală, 2015) and Avataruri ale mitului oedipian în cultura modernă [Avatars of the Oedipal Myth in Modern Culture] (Eikon, 2022). She is a member of the Shakespeare and Music study group (Royal Musical Association, UK).

Pianist Andreea Butnaru graduated the National University of Music in Bucharest (Prof. Viniciu Moroianu) and the Berlin University of the Arts (Prof. Sorin Enăchescu). She studied with renowned teachers and artists, such as professors Șerban-Dimitrie Soreanu (chamber music), Hans Leygraf, Martin Hughes, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, is laureate of international piano competitions and awarded with the title Honorary Artist of Romania in 2005. She performs solo and chamber music on important stages in Romania, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, Poland and Japan, connecting new and old repertoires, and has numerous on-air appearances (TVR, BBC Classical, Romanian Radio Broadcasting).

Andreea Butnaru teaches Chamber music at the National University of Music Bucharest and is artistic director of Ensemble Musica Viva. As president of the Association Mklasica Melos she creates and implements cultural projects for education of young people, promoting Romanian classical music and interdisciplinary arts on national and international stages.

Joseph Cadagin is the Audience Education and Communications Manager at Houston Grand Opera. He holds a PhD in musicology from Stanford University, where he was awarded fellowships from the Stanford Humanities Center and the Fulbright Program to complete his dissertation on György Ligeti. He has conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto’s Jackman Humanities Institute and New Europe College in Bucharest. His forthcoming article “Ligeti’s Unfinished Alice in Wonderland” will appear in Perspectives of New Music. Supplementing his academic work, he is a critic of contemporary opera and has contributed to Opera News, OperaWire, and San Francisco Classical Voice.

Romanian pianist Daniel Dascălu (b. 1991) has performed solo and chamber music concerts both in his country and abroad. He is alumnus of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna where he studied piano performance with Prof. Martin Hughes and chamber music with Prof. Stefan Mendl. Previously, he had also completed Bachelor and Master studies at the National University of Music Bucharest with Prof. Dana Borșan. In 2022, he was invited as a collaborative pianist at the Crescendo Summer Institute in Tokaj, Hungary and at the George Enescu International Violin Competition in Bucharest, Romania. In February 2021, he completed his PhD studies at the National University of Music Bucharest with highest distinction under the tutelage of Prof. Dana Borșan, with a thesis on Schubert’s piano sonatas. Since 2021, Daniel Dascălu holds a teaching position as assistant professor for Piano Accompaniment at the National University of Music Bucharest.