”A pianist who “shines in his ability to capture the mood, the color, the very character of each piece while still maintaining a sense of the whole” (Fanfare)
Silvan Negruțiu serves as the Karen and Michael Kitt Endowed Professor in Piano, Associate Professor, and Director of Piano Studies in the Kitt School of Music at Northern Arizona University. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Flagstaff Piano Festival and Northern Arizona Piano Competition. Hailed as “a startling and authentic pianist displaying rich imagination and brilliant vigor, whose precision and splendor of keyboard sound certainly inspire a transcendental reality” (The Musical News Journal, Bucharest), a pianist who “shines in his ability to capture the mood, the color, the very character of each piece while still maintaining a sense of the whole” (Fanfare), Silvan Negruţiu has performed on major international stages, from the Kennedy Center in Washington DC to Ireland’s National Concert Hall, the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, the Xi’an Concert Hall in China, the Showa Recital Hall in Tokyo, and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. We got to sit down and talk with him leading up to his performance of Franz Liszt’s Totentanz with the FSO!
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
A: I began by music studies in native Romania when I was seven. At fourteen, I left my hometown to study piano at the Dinu Lipatti Boarding Music School in Bucharest, which is common for young musicians in Eastern European countries. I spent about ten years in Bucharest, where I also attended the Romanian National University of Music as an undergraduate student in piano performance. Following my undergraduate degree, I moved to Dublin after winning a scholarship to study with John O’Conor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. This was a dream come true because he was someone I had admired greatly for many years and had always wanted to work on the Beethoven Sonatas with him. After a few wonderful years in Dublin, I moved to the US when Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia invited me to move along with John O’Conor to pursue a doctorate degree, while teaching a studio of piano students there. The US has become my new adoptive country ever since, having also spent eight years at Millikin University in Illinois before moving to Flagstaff to teach at Northern Arizona University.
Q: What was it like moving from Europe to the US?
A: Although there are many cultural differences between European countries and the US (also true between Eastern and Western European countries), the principles of music making and pedagogy are similar. In my opinion, one of the many positives of American music pedagogy is the attention to the individual needs of students and the care for their growth based on their unique social and musical capital. European music instruction is more direct and emphasizes the great artistic and pedagogical traditions of each place. There is much worth in both systems and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to learn and work in both the European and the American contexts. In terms of lifestyle, I do miss the public transit system and walking everywhere in Dublin and
Bucharest. However, I find the cultural-historical richness and vastness of the American Southwest truly inspiring, and I enjoy the ability to hop in my car and explore all that my new home has to offer.
Q: What drew you to piano and then wanting to pursue music professionally?
A: My parents noticed my musical inclination as a child. My mother is a very fine pedagogue and she happened to know the first grade teacher at the arts school in town, which was close to our home. This is a specialized school that requires a basic aural skills audition for admission, offering two instruments to choose from in first grade: piano or violin. My mother convinced me to choose violin because she already had a violin at home. However, when I heard the piano sound during the audition’s pitch-matching test, I was mesmerized and immediately declared that the piano was my instrument. My poor
parents then had to go buy a piano for me! It was only around seventh grade – when I decided to move to Bucharest – that I truly knew I wanted to pursue music as my professional career.
Q: How do you like living in Flagstaff?
A: I absolutely enjoy working with such wonderful students and colleagues at NAU. I am also in awe with the creative and supportive community here, both on campus and in the larger Northern Arizona area. I have made many great friendships with local people that I admire. Outside of music and piano, I am an avid hiker and cyclist, and Flagstaff is truly idyllic for those hobbies. I often take my piano students on hikes around Flagstaff, which is a great way to combine the things that I love. Some of my best ideas and inspiration come on a hike or a walk when I am away from the instrument and the computer. I believe nature enriches our creativity and is beneficial for our physical and mental health. For all of these reasons and many more, I am grateful to call Flagstaff home.
Q: What excites you about Totentanz?
A:First, playing it and sharing it with an audience is just pure joy and excitement. It’s like fireworks emerging from every instrument on stage, with a brief pause for prayer in the middle. Then, I am fascinated by how well Totentanz – which translates as Dance of Death – portrays Liszt’s complex personality. He was an adored touring virtuoso with rich displays of showmanship that paralleled today’s rockstars. As an innovative musician on many fronts, he was the first pianist to present a full solo piano recital and to establish the concept of a public piano masterclass. At the same time, Liszt was a very deep thinker who was drawn to religion and philosophy, even becoming a monk later in life. Along with Chopin and Thalberg, he revolutionized the mechanics of piano technique, blending virtuosity with profound musicianship in a way that is often referred to as “transcendental.” This blend of artistic qualities is prominently present in his Totentanz.
Liszt’s works were often inspired by other forms of art, his travels, and ancient music. Totentanz was inspired by Traini’s painting The Triumph of Death, which Liszt had seen in Pisa during a trip to Italy. He decided to use the Medieval Gregorian plainchant Dies irae – translating to “the day of judgment” or “the day of wrath” and is also woven into the last movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique – as the main theme, taking it through many creative variations and transformations. Totentanz has moments of reverence and transcendence but is also edgy and virtuosic. It essentially features every technique that one could use on a piano. The peaceful moments featuring the Gregorian chant in canonic counterpoint and the ensuing ethereal B Major transformations – this is what I earlier referred to as “the prayer in the middle” – are probably my favorite, and I am very eager to share them with the
audience.
Q: What do you hope the audience takes away from the performance?
A: This piece speaks to the human nature. Whether someone is a seasoned musician or attends a concert for the first time, everyone can relate to the wide-ranging forms of emotional expression in Totentanz. The nuances and complexity of human emotion are so present in this work, whether it is the most tender and contemplative moment we hold close to our heart, or an explosion of fear, desperation, and even rage.
Q: A final thought?
A: As performing musicians, we travel and perform many different places. To me, there is hardly anything more rewarding than sharing my home stage with friends, colleagues, and students; so, collaborating with Charles Latshaw and the fine FSO musicians this week is a very special occasion. Furthermore, sharing this powerful music with the local audience is such a treat, and I very much look forward to it.
Silvan Negruțiu performs Franz Liszt’s Totentanz with Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra on Friday, October 27th at 7:30pm in Ardrey Memorial Auditorium.
