From notes in Bucharest to world stages
“I was born and raised in Bucharest, my parents are engineers, but I’ve always had a passion for music.” Pianist and composer, Sinziana Mircea has been playing since the age of five and now regularly performs on some of the most renowned stages in Europe, Asia, and North America. At the age of 20, she made her debut at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, and at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.
Her studies and career reflect a great passion that she pursues every day. She says: “After high school, I decided to go to university, choosing a path entirely dedicated to music. In fact, I chose Germany because of my passion for classical music and enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Cologne.” But it was no mean feat. The selection process for one of the most prestigious European universities for musicians is a rigorous one: there are only seven spots for 200 candidates. But Mircea won a place, and in her third year she decided to do an Erasmus internship in London, a city she would return for her Master’s at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. “London won me over with its stimulating, open and international environment,” she says. After graduating, she was awarded the title of Young Steinway Artist, and in 2016 debuted to a sold-out crowd at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Her concert ended with a standing ovation, and she would return to this same stage in 2019 as the winner of the International Golden Classical Music Awards Competition.
Hers is a success story born of perseverance.
Mircea continued her university studies, and at the same time got accepted for a two-year program at the Imola Piano Academy in Italy, a country that had captured her heart during master classes she had attended when she was very young. “When I was 19, I met Aldo Ciccolini, a piano legend. I attended his lessons in Riva del Garda for three years. It was there that I began to study Italian and to immerse myself in the culture of this beautiful country,” she adds.
So, her return to Italy was only a matter of time. “After my stint in London, I wanted to try something different. I thought about studying law, but that would have meant giving up the piano, so I looked for a path that would strengthen some of my skills in music,” she adds. In 2017, Mircea decided to enroll in the Master in Arts Management and Administration (MAMA) at SDA Bocconi in Milan. She says: “It was the perfect mix of art and management for me. It took one year and, in the meantime, I continued to give concerts and play music.”
Today, Mircea, who is finishing up her doctorate in music at the University of Timisoara in Romania, teaches piano at the Sassari Conservatory. She has also founded a music association for young people in Bucharest, where she uses her managerial skills to develop innovative projects. As a young woman, she says, there are myriad opportunities: “Music is an open environment, I don’t see any gender discrimination among pianists. It may be more difficult for conductors, but not so for instrumentalists.” Of course, you have to earn a reputation, and you have to be original. This is the advice she gives to the new generation: be creative and have the courage to present authentic projects and open up new horizons. “Recently, I’ve tried to change things up. I don’t play the standard program. I mixed in electronic music, an innovative repertoire, the sounds of nature, video mapping, and my own compositions in my performances, with the idea of giving the audience all-around emotion through an immersive experience,” she concludes.
