conductor / teacher / artistic consultant / composer / orchestrator / editor / baritone / violist – located in Bucharest / Pitesti – Romania
în română
bio notes
Silviu Deaconescu was born in a sheltered from heavy county road traffic area and he grew up in Surupate, a village which is subject to earthly troubles and close to “Dintr-un Lemn” and “Surupate” monasteries.
Although he was surrounded by lots of music, with his grand-parents and parents being teachers, his passion for music was only triggered through the end of the middle-school years. By then, he would have attended music school already, while also being in middle school, and, due to the fluctuations of staff at School No. 1 and the Music School of Rm. Valcea, he was forced to adapt to the requirments of every year new teachers. Alexandru Teodorescu, the one that put in hand his first violin, Nicolae Manda-professor of musical teory and solfege, Mrs. Buica, Florentina Tohatan and Nelu Vasile remained in his affective memory since then.
The major change came when he chose to continue his education at the newly Music Highschool, established in town. At that time, no other highschool appealed more interesting that the Music Highscool, to which he physically contributed, along his colleagues in fine arts. Thanks to the pedagogical knowledge of his violin teacher -Mariana Mihailescu-who taught him the technique of studying and musical interpretation, who sent him to competitions and olympiads and made him work for his success, and his music history professor, Gelu Stratulat, but also thanks to Nelu Vasile(orchestra) and Mihail Stefanescu(choral ensemble), Silviu formed here as a musician.
At the National University of Music in Bucharest he strengthened his musical knowledge by specializing in pedagogy, conducting and composition, studying and creating with Rodica Nicolaescu (music theory), Dan Buciu (harmony), Doina Rotaru & Dan Dediu (composition), Teodor Țuțuianu (counterpoint), Mihail Diaconescu & Valentin Gruescu & Petru Andriesei (conducting), Grigore Cudalbu (score reading), Vasile Iliuț & Grigore Constantinescu & Liviu Dănceanu (music history)… During his studies, he conducted his colleagues, sang as a bass-baritone in the Kontakion choir of the UNMB(1996-2000) and played the violin in the Philarmonic Chamber Orchestra of the Romanian Youth Culture Centre, from 1999 to 2001. He toured Spain and created his own musical works, for which he received the following awards: 1st prize at the Composition Competition “George Enescu – Impressions from childhood”-1998; Iosif Constantin Drăgan Foundation – Bucharest, with the piece Plutea o floare de tei, for solo violin-1998; 3rd prize at the UNMB Composition Competition “Chamber Music” with the piece Vernisaj for flute, viola and painting exhibition-2000. Vernisaj was the musician’s first attempt at the conceptof FUSION+MONOLITH+FRAGMENT, promoted by painter and graphic artist Marius Cristea, known through the art critic Gabriela Popescu. So far, Silviu Deaconescu and Marius Cristea have collaborated in: the Vernisaj premiere, George Enescu hall of UNMB 2000 (SD – music + direction, MC and colleagues – performance); Ropes – group exhibition opening at Galla Art Gallery in Bucharest 2000 (SD with Vernisaj, MC and colleagues – drawings); Come to Intercommunication – group exhibition at Metopa Art Gallery in Pitesti 2002 (SD – music+performance, MC – painting+performance); Short chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach II symphonic vocal concert at Pitesti Philharmonic 2009 (SD – direction, scenario, musical direction, MC – performance).
After finishing his university studies, Silviu was a full-time professor of music, at School No. 88, in Bucharest (2001-2004), and was the executive dirctor of the UCMR Music Publishing House(2005-2007), while also being the music editor of his own publishing house, Edition Sylva, in Pitesti. Silviu Deaconescu has been involved in buliding the Pitești Philharmonic since 2007, as conductor of the symphonic choir and artistic consultant of this institution, participating in the organization and careful planning of artistic events, writing hall programs, establishing repertoires, planning and musically training his subordinate colleagues, advising, mediating conflicts and egos, negotiating contracts.
“He went out on stage by himself. Without an orchestra. In other words, an a cappella evening. Thursday, at the philharmonic. When the choir was on its own. Conducted by Silviu. Deaconescu. Fiery like Gruescu. In a rather eclectic program. Implicitly uneven. But pleasant in the end. Coloured with some Show. By Codruța and Tibi. Oprea. Vocalists. In an operatic “salad”. Which made me think this would be the place for this ensemble. ”
Adrian Simeanu, Coru’, pe cont propriu – Săgetătorul, 8 April 2008
“We were going to have a choir, but we didn’t have a conductor! Because of the rivalry between some local conductors, I looked for someone outside the sphere of influence. […] Luckily, a 29 year old young man who specialised in academic choral conducting applied for the job of artistic consultant! I took the liberty of telling him, immediately after the competition and before the results were posted, that I really needed a choir conductor (and Silviu Deaconescu came to us as director of the Editura Muzicală). Silviu Deaconescu held out as a conductor because he demanded performance.”
Jean Dumitrașcu, manager of the Pitesti Philharmonic, A choir, a strike and more conductors, ziarobiectiv.ro
“Following the conflicts that arose in the choral department, in November 2007 I was forced by decision to take over the choir made up of 24 employed members and many collaborators coming from the city’s amateur choirs, the theological seminary, the local music faculty, all enthusiastic and willing but timbrally and behaviorally diverse. By imposing a drastic working regime, after which many left the band, we managed to produce our first large-scale work, Mozart’s Requiem, in five months, starting from the popular and light repertoire and ending the first season with Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Silviu Deaconescu
In the second season we required the performance of several works by Bach and Handel to make the choir technically and intonationally proficient. At the same time, we reformed the strategy for paying collaborators so that the choir consists of at least 40 permanent members (budgetary constraint). We have introduced mandatory rehearsals per part which have increased the efficiency of ensemble rehearsals. The vocal-symphonic concerts of the 2008-2009 season were prolific and diverse, with a rhythm of one vocal-symphonic per month. Unfortunately, the macro-economy went into decline and following Government Ordinance 63/2010, the choir was dismissed in autumn 2010.
I imagined new artistic projects so that my work and the institution’s investment would not be wasted and the effect would be one of county-wide cultural impact. The projects La Corte de Faraon (a zarzuela by Vincente Lleo) and ClusterChorus were implemented in 2011, 2012, and 2013 respectively, with the second edition of ClusterChorus conducted by myself, as well as my debut as conductor of the symphony orchestra. ”
In present, Silviu’s professional, extra-professional life and activity has been linked to Pitesti and its philharmonic, co-organising over 1100 sound events and more than 150 concerts, in which he played/was the protagonist. He collaborated with many musicians and artists, such as Horia Andreescu, Valentin Gheorghiu, Ludovic Bács, Gheorghe Costin, Theo Wolters, Alexandru Iosub, Petre Sbârcea, Alexandru Ganea, Pompeiu Hărășteanu, Gary Dilworth, Adrian Morar, Felicia Filip, Alfredo Pascu, Mădălin Sandu, Ștefan Schuller, Andra Bivol-Costea, Stefan Popov, Marius Hristescu, Cristina Anghelescu, Alexandru Tomescu, Gabriel Croitoru, Horia Mihail, Maria Miron, Irina Iordăchescu, Silvia Anarte Olivero, Raffaele Cancelliere, Octav Calleya, Soyung Yu, Bianca Manoleanu, Ion Bogdan Ștefănescu, Emil Vișenescu, Jin Wang, Vladimir Onufriev and others. In addition to his work in the Pitesti Philharmonic, Silviu Deaconescu is also the conductor of the D.G. Kiriac Male Choir in Pitesti, tenaciously promoting the choral art. [ Click on the Concerts Archive to view all the events in which Silviu Deaconescu has participated ].
In December 2018, he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting, under Petru Andriesei, after a series of exams and concerts with the student orchestras of the National University of Music in Bucharest. Not only did him conduct classical works such as L.v. Beethoven, Schubert’s Symphony No. 1 or Mendelssohn’s Symphony Nos. 1 and 4, but also contemporary works such as Regengrün by S. Dobrovicescu, Violoncelles, vibrez! by G. Sollima or Divergent by Nguyen Ngoc Tu. At the request of the Pitesti Philharmonic, he conducted the complex vocal-symphonic concert Bucuria Crăciunului (Christmas Joy), in which he collaborated with sopranos Christina Minan and Lee Seung Hee, tenor George Neacșu and bass Ion Grigorescu, with the assistance of the Pitesti Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of the Archdiocese of Argeș and Muscel, in the presence of His Eminence Calinic, Archbishop of Argeș and Muscel. (Part of the orchestrations made for this concert are available free of charge.)
In October 2019, he had the joy of conducting L.v.Beethoven’s Symphony VIII, a symphony full of cheerfulness and humour, with graceful themes, sometimes with chamber sounds, showing us a Beethoven at peace with his fate. For this symphony he has also created a special web page, www.b8.sylva.ro .
The Covid-19 pandemic has been difficult and with many transformations, but Silviu Deaconescu has never stopped thinking of solutions, while discovering artistic opportunities, both for himself and especially for his colleagues and choristers. Below are the mini-sites of projects from these years.
Concert Topoloveni 19 iunie 2021
Concert Sinagoga Pitești – 100 de ani – 9 septembrie 2021
Starting with the 2021-2022 school year, Silviu Deaconescu has also become a collaborating teacher at the Dinu Lipatti High School of Arts in Pitesti, where he teaches Choir, Orchestra, History of Music, History of Jazz, Harmony and Musical Forms.