The Meridian International Contemporary Music Festival
A festival that enlivens cultural centers across the country
Ana-Maria Cononovici, 11.11.2025, 14:00
This autumn will see the 20th edition of the Meridian International Contemporary Music Festival. Founded by Adrian Iorgulescu, the then president of the Union of Composers, the Festival has managed to stay in the spotlight of contemporary art lovers, reinventing itself along the way. Since 2019, when composer Diana Rotaru, today the artistic director of the festival, joined the team, the event took on a new structure. The festival opening will happen simultaneously in four host cities: Bucharest, Cluj, Iași, and Timișoara. The capital city will host chamber concerts by renowned artists, four absolute premieres, contemporary dance installation performances, but also immersive projections. Visual artist Ioana Buraga told us more:
“When I met Diana, I was working for an advertising agency, and collaborating with the festival came as a breath of fresh air, as we were given free rein and complete trust. Combined with Diana’s energy and enthusiasm, the entire creative process became a joy. We’re now in our third consecutive year of working on the festival, and the bond has grown organically with every edition. The first year was about the Persona concept, a project where we created eight reinterpreted tribal masks, later 3D printed and given as prizes to the audience. It was a different experience for us because we combined technology with symbolism and the idea of identity, a recurrent theme in contemporary art. Then followed Sonimagicon, a concept we aimed to develop over several years to create visual and conceptual continuity”.
The creators of the visual concept are Ioana Buraga and her partner:
“We are Ordoetchao, a multidisciplinary creative collective consisting of me and Vlad Grigore, which we use to explore the contrast between order and chaos, structure and freedom. If we had to divide our activity into two main areas, we’d say Ordoetchao lives on the border between advertising and entertainment. In advertising, we create brand visual identities, product sales campaigns and communication strategies. We love building coherent, expressive visual stories, whether for commercial brands or cultural projects. On the entertainment side, we work with 2D and 3D animation, visual experiences and sound design, collaborating with independent identities and cultural organizations. For us, it’s a territory that offers complete freedom of expression, where we can experiment and explore new ideas without constraints. In fact, it was cultural projects that opened the way to Diana Rotaru and, implicitly, to the Meridian Festival”.
Ioana Buraga says guests should fully enjoy the atmosphere of the festival:
“The festival’s central character this edition is the Queen of Sonimagicon, a magnetic symbol with something hypnotic, an energy that attracts you, sparks curiosity and challenges you to step out of your comfort zone. It’s like an invitation to a show, discovery, connection, and ultimately to contemporary music. This year, we decided to go further. Whereas until now, we explored the Queen’s exterior and public image, we chose to delve into her inner world. Thus, Sonimagicland was born, a 15-minute animation to be screened in the opening event at the Opera and Multimedia Studio of the National University of Music in Bucharest. What’s special is that the event will take place simultaneously in four cities—Bucharest, Cluj, Iași, and Timișoara. It will be a genuine collective experience. Sonimagicland is, in fact, an embodiment of the Queen’s inner world, a surreal paradox of the senses. It’s a world where you hear with your eyes and see with your ears, a world that wants to be like a mirror where each viewer can see themselves, even if just for a moment”.
Ioana Buraga extended an invitation to all Festival events, which deserve to be experienced as a whole with music, performance, animation and audience energy, and also shared with us her future projects:
“For the future, we have already started discussing with Diana about possible surprises for upcoming editions. We like projects that are coherent, well-structured, and have a unified vision. Somehow, we can bring that visual component that ties them together and makes them memorable. For us, Ordoetchao is a space for growth. We constantly seek to evolve, to collaborate with inspiring people, and develop projects that bring art closer to the audience. Our dream is to bring artists together over time, to create opportunities and spaces where they gain the visibility and recognition they deserve. This motivates us daily, the idea of a creative community, exchange, mutual inspiration. And I believe this is precisely what the Meridian Festival does: it creates a living, open space where disciplines mix, and music, image, and emotion complement each other.” (VP)
