The CEMAN (Central European Music Academies Network) Orchestra, comprising 25 young musicians from six countries, is embarking on its autumn tour of Romania, entitled 'Beyond Borders.'

According to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday, concerts will take place in Bucharest on 30 October, in Craiova on 1 November and in Pitesti on 2 November, all starting at 19:00.

The soloist will be Bucharest-born violinist Mircea Dumitrescu, with Romolo Gessi, the orchestra's music director, conducting.

The opening concert will take place on 30 October at 19:00 in the George Enescu Hall of the National University of Music Bucharest.

The programme brings together works by Felix Mendelssohn, Bela Bartok and Benjamin Britten. The evening opens with Mendelssohn's String Symphony No. 10 in B minor, which he composed at the age of 13, followed by his Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra in D minor, written around the same period, in which the soloist engages in a musical dialogue with the orchestra's strings. The programme continues with Bela Bartok's 'Romanian Folk Dances', a set of seven pieces based on melodies from Romanian folk tradition, in which lyrical passages alternate with lively dances. The evening concludes with Benjamin Britten's 'Simple Symphony,' performed 50 years after the composer's death.

'Performing early works by Mendelssohn and Britten, alongside the enduring energy of Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances, with a soloist such as Mircea Dumitrescu and an orchestra of talented young musicians, represents an extraordinary opportunity,' Romolo Gessi said.

The orchestra's 25 instrumentalists are students at higher music education institutions in Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Ukraine and Italy. They come from the National University of Music Bucharest, the Academy of Arts of the University of Banja Luka, the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts in Chisinau, the Music Academy of the University of Montenegro in Cetinje, the P. I. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv, the Giuseppe Tartini Conservatory in Trieste, which coordinates the project, and the Jacopo Tomadini Conservatory in Udine.

The tour is supported by the Central European Initiative (CEI), marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of its Executive Secretariat, and takes place in the year in which Romania holds the CEI Presidency. The event is organised in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest.

'The value of the regional cooperation promoted by the CEI is also reflected in the collaborative spirit that inspires an orchestra capable of bringing together talented young people from different countries across the region, encouraging the exchange of experience and creating opportunities for encounters that promote intercultural dialogue and strengthen ties between the younger generations,' CEI Secretary-General Franco Dal Mas said, as quoted in the press release.

CEMAN (Central European Music Academies Network) is a network of music academies in Central Europe, established in 2016 at the initiative of the Tartini Conservatory in Trieste, with the support of the CEI. The orchestra made its debut in Zagreb in 2018 before performing in Trieste under Croatian conductor Jasenka Ostojic, with violinist Eleonora Hil as soloist. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Petronius Craiu; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)