VLAD STANCULEASA

Biography

Romanian/Swedish violinist Vlad Stanculeasa leads a rich musical life as soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia and South America.
He’s performed chamber music with some of the most celebrated musicians of today including Maxim Vengerov, Janine Jansen, Alberto Lysy, Maximilian Hornung, Jose Gallardo, Viktoria Mullova, Jeremy Menuhin, and Ana Chumachenco.
He received top prizes in the George Enescu International Violin Competition, Renata Molinari Competition, Valsesia Musica International Competition, as well as the 2007 Enescu Prize for the best performance of Enescu’s Impressions d’enfance. As a soloist, he’s performed with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Kammersymphonie Leipzig, George Enescu Philharmonic. He’s collaborated as soloist with many conductors including Kent Nagano, Lahav Shani, Han Na Chang, Konrad von Abel, Joana Carneiro, Min Kim, and Mischa Katz.
Stanculeasa has been Concertmaster of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra since 2010 until 2019. He previously served as Concertmaster of the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid and as Concertmaster of the Basel Chamber Orchestra where he often led the ensemble without a conductor. He is currently Concertmaster of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and is occupying the same position in the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, orchestra in residence of the Menuhin Festival.
As a guest concertmaster he has worked with orchestras such as: Bamberger Symphoniker, l’Accademia di Santa Cecilia Roma, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kammersymphonie Leipzig, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Suisse Romande Orchestra alongside conductors like Jaap van Zweden, Gustavo Dudamel, Neeme Järvi, Kent Nagano, Manfred Honneck, Marek Janowski, Christoph Eschenbach.

He studied with Alberto Lysy and Liviu Prunaru at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland and in the Lausanne Conservatory under the tutelage of Pierre Amoyal.
He released his debut album in 2013 on the RCA Red Seal/Sony label with a program dedicated to Romanian concert music performed with pianist Thomas Hoppe. The Strad Magazine review stated that “Stanculeasa is never in doubt in this very demanding program – his picture-painting in the Impressions d’enfance, in particular, is both subtle and brilliant. A warm tonal quality, born out of a wide vibrato, perfectly captures... gypsy element[s]...”.
2017 brought the release of “Pyramids” recording where together with pianist James Maddox he performs music by Nielsen, Messiaen and Enescu.
As an educator, Stanculeasa is currently a teacher at the Superior Conservatory of Music in Barcelona (ESMUC), has served as guest professor at Gothenburg University of Music and Drama and led multiple master classes throughout Serbia, Spain, Venezuela, and Sweden.

He is the founder and artistic director of NUME Academy & Festival in Italy, a prestigious tuition free international masterclass for advanced students. A chance encounter with Sergiu Celibidache’s assistant, Konrad von Abel, led to the establishment of an intense investigation of the phenomenology of music.
This led to a further necessity to develop his means of expression and in 2021, he has obtained his masters in orchestra conducting at the Royal Conservatory in Mons, Belgium, under Daniel Gazon.

Stanculeasa plays a Sanctus Seraphino from 1739, which once belonged to George Enescu and his great pupil Yehudi Menuhin lent to him by the Tharice Foundation in Switzerland.