Ivona Cristescu – Vice-President
Born on June 20, 1946 in Tecuci, she graduated the National University of Music in Bucharest (formerly the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatoire), working with the Romanian Television, where she focused, early on, on choosing subjects of particular interest to those young less familiar with classical music. As such, live broadcasts of orchestral and chamber music concerts from the Romanian Athenaeum or the Radio Concert Hall, from the George Enescu International Festival or of Sergiu Celibidache’s legendary concerts turned into genuine musical celebrations, presented in an attractive manner, with interviews and reports bringing the young viewers as close as possible to the music they were about to listen to.
At the National University of Music, Ivona Cristescu ran, for three years, the series “Maeștri consacrați, maeștri în devenire” [“Established Masters, Masters-to-Be”], a dialogue of generations between esteemed professors and students, today important names in Romanian music while also being soprano Georgeta Stoleriu’s ten-year long companion in awarding the Iolanda Mărculescu grant.
Ivona Cristescu’s work in reporting from the Children’s Comic Opera – more than thirty such reports broadcast by the Romanian Television – received the Grand Prize for the popularization of these successful events. She also covered projects by the Stela Popescu Theatre and Ambasadorii Music Theatre.
Other important TV productions are the series “Maeștrii cântăreți ai Operei Române” [The Master-Singers of the Romanian Opera] (80 episodes) and “Enescu, un destin moldav în universalitate” [Enescu, a Moldavian Destiny in the Universal] (5 episodes), the latter awarded the Professional Journalists Union Prize.