Alexander Bălănescu
| Alexander Bălănescu | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 11, 1954 Bucharest, Romania |
| Instruments | Violin |
| Website | www |
Alexander Bălănescu (Romanian pronunciation: [alekˈsander bələˈnesku]) (born June 11, 1954) is a Romanian violinist, and founder of the Balanescu Quartet.
Bălănescu was born in Bucharest, and at the age of seven went to the Special School for Music there. His teachers in Romania were Dolly Koritzer, Garabet Avakian and Stephan Gheorghiu. His studies continued at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem with Iair Kless, London’s Trinity College with Bela Katona, and from 1975-79 at the Juilliard School, New York with Dorothy DeLay, where he also took part in master classes with Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Felix Galimir and Robert Mann.
In 1979 Bălănescu became leader of the Michael Nyman Band and toured with this group around the world for 15 years. During the same period he was also a member of the Gavin Bryars Ensemble.
Bălănescu was in the Arditti Quartet for four years before forming his own quartet in 1987. The Balanescu Quartet has worked closely with Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, Kevin Volans, as well as musicians from varied musical fields such as John Lurie, David Byrne, Keith Tippett, Carla Bley, Rabih Abou Khalil, Spiritualized and the Pet Shop Boys. The dynamism of the quartet and its innovative approach to repertoire has led to performances on four continents in diverse venues, ranging from intimate clubs to stadiums.
Collaborations as composer/performer include, in dance, with Meryl Tankard, Pina Bausch, Rosemary Lee, Suzy Blok, Jochen Ulrich, Phillipe Saire and Virgilio Sieni, and in theatre productions at Theatre de la Place, Liege, Belgrade State Theatre, Cabaret Dromesko, Rennes, and Watford Palace Theatre. Bălănescu's credits as a composer of film and TV music include the feature films Angels & Insects (dir. Philip Haas), Le Poulpe (dir. Guillaume Nicloux), Il Partigiano Johnny (dir. Guido Chiesa), Eisenstein (dir. Renny Bartlett) and The Way I Spent the End of the World (dir. Cătălin Mitulescu) and over 20 animated films, the majority with his longstanding collaborator the director Phil Mulloy. In 2008 he wrote the music for the Hungarian film Tablo (dir. Gábor Dettre), performed by the Balanescu Quartet. 2009 saw a renewal of his collaboration with the director Philip Haas for the film installations Skeletons Warming themselves by the Fire and The Death of Pentheus commissioned by the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. The Death of Pentheus was also screened at the Venice Film Festival.
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Wikipedia