Horia Mihail’s Success in Argentina

Today well take a look at the Romanian pianist Horia Mihails successful participation in an international classical music festival in Argentina.

România Internațional, 30.11.2013, 14:01

One of the most highly acclaimed Romanian pianists of his generation, the piano soloist of Radio Romania’s Choirs and Orchestras Horia Mihail took part in the International Classical Music Festival held in Ushuaia, Argentina, in mid-October. Mihail performed pieces included in the program of the “Traveling Piano” national tournament, organized jointly by Radio Romania’s Culture Channel and the Accendo Cultural Association.

Horia Mihail studied the piano at the Music Academy in Bucharest, under the supervision of Constantin Ionescu-Vovu. After 14 years of study in Romania, Horia Mihail furthered his education at the University of Illinois in the United States of America, where he studied with Ian Hobson. In 1995 Mihail got his BA and his Master’s degree. In 1999 Horia Mihail also got an “Artist’s Diploma” from Boston University, where he studied with Anthony di Bonaventura.

As the soloist of Radio Romania’s Orchestras and Choirs, Horia Mihail has given a great number of concerts and recitals at Radio Romania’s Concert Hall in Bucharest. He has also worked with classical music orchestras across the country, and has taken tours in Romania or abroad.

Throughout his career, Mihail has given more than 2,000 recitals and concerts in 18 countries on all continents. In recent years, Horia Mihail has initiated several large-scale projects, with a clear cultural and social impact, such as “The Traveling Piano”, “The Golden Flute”, “George Enescu’s Violin in the Countryside” and “The Duel of Violins”.

The Romanian pianist’s participation in the Festival in Ushuaia, Argentina, on October 15th, was sponsored by the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Romanian Embassy in Buenos Aires and Radio Romania. Here is what Horia Mihail told us before leaving for Argentina:

“It is for the first time that I’ll be crossing the Equator. I’ll have a solo recital in Buenos Aires, then fly for a few hours to get to the world’s southernmost city, Ushuaia, which hosts a Beethoven Festival. The programme I’ve been playing in Romania for so long will thus be heard by music lovers at the end of the world, and this is great. It will be a beautiful journey and I hope I’ll come back with wonderful stories.”

The International Classical Music Festival in Ushuaia, held between October 5th and 19th, reached its 9th edition this year. Here are Horia Mihail’s first impressions of his journey:

“It was an absolutely unbelievable landscape, although the cold did affect my voice a little. The concerts were a success, and I’d like to mention the audience here, they are quite loud, not during the performances as such, but while applauding. They behave as I imagine the opera audience used to do 100-150 years ago.”

Prior to the concert in Ushuaia, Horia Mihail performed in Buenos Aires, in the Chamber Salon of the “Usina del Arte” Cultural Center, an important cultural landmark for the Argentinean capital. Here is Horia Mihail again

“In Buenos Aires I played in a relatively new location, called Usina del Arte, a complex that comprises two concert halls, exhibition areas, many other cultural attractions, and built inside a former industrial complex. I played in one of the concert halls there, and I was quite surprised to see that 300-seat hall full of people. I met some of the few members of the Romanian community in Argentina, but most of the audience was made up of Argentineans. Last night I performed in Ushuaia, at the end of the world, as they like to call this place. The star of this year’s edition of the Festival was Beethoven, and this perfectly matched my programme, because I play the same pieces as part of the ‘Traveling Piano’ project. These days, all Beethoven’s symphonies have been played in Ushuaia, in front of audiences ranging between 300 and 7 thousand people, which is quite a lot considering that the town has a population of around 60,000 people.”

Pianist Horia Mihail is also the president of the Accendo Cultural Association, which organizes five MusicON tours with the Romanian Piano Trio, three Stradivarius tours and, jointly with Radio Romania, the national tours “The Traveling Piano” and “The Duel of Violins: Stradivarius vs. Guarnieri.” Horia Mihail was recently in Chisinau, for a concert devoted to the 100th anniversary of the Polish musician Witold Lutoslawski.