Luminița Arvunescu – President

Born on October 14, 1963, Luminița Arvunescu is one of the most popular and respected voices in Romanian radio as well as the organiser of successful musical events.

Graduating in Musicology from the National University of Music Bucharest (1987), she received a PhD Summa cum laude in Music Journalism (2012). Working with the Romanian Radio since 1990 and specialising in opera music, in 1997 she helped prepare and launch the first classical music station in the country, Radio România Muzical, as an editor, a position she held until 2004.

In her capacity as a radio producer, Luminița Arvunescu is known for her Seara de operă [Opera Evening], broadcast for more than two decades on Radio România Muzical and Radio România Cultural and which won the Music Critics Union Award and the Romanian Music Forum’s Musica Viva Award. She has interviewed many notable artists, such as Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Karita Mattila, Diana Damrau, Joyce di Donato, Piotr Beczala sau Bryn Terfel.

The first Romanian Radio journalist accredited in Germany for weekly reports (1992-95) after the revolution of 1989, she was also the first journalist to broadcast live from a radio studio abroad when she presented performances from the Radio Metropolitan Opera International studio in New York (2011-14).

Initiator of the Special Video Editions on Radio România Muzical and opening the series with soprano Virginia Zeani (2011), Luminița Arvunescu successfully ventured outside the radio station as organiser of musical events when she started and moderated the Opera FANtastica live-audience meetings (2016), a popular series in collaboration with the Association for Music, Art and Culture featuring choice guests.

Published by such magazines and dailies as Dilema Veche, Cronica Română, Muzica, Actualitatea Muzicală, Melos or Agenda Festivalului George Enescu, Luminița Arvunescu sat in the jury of many opera competitions and galas. Founding member of Music Critics, Editors and Producers Union, she became the successor of late founder Grigore Constantinescu PhD at its head in 2020.

English version by Maria Monica Bojin