Biography

June 3, 2017March 29, 2024
by christoph

As one of the defining Marimba players of his generation, Bogdan Bacanu has been praised for his culture of sound as well as his deep musicality. He is professor of marimba at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz (Austria) since age 23 and was thus the youngest professor of his kind, world-wide. In 1998 he was awarded ,Musician of the Year' in Australia and in 2010 a honorary professorship by the University of Sechuan / China. He also was a teacher at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Bogdan Bacanu studied marimba at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with his great mentor Professor Peter Sadlo. Since then, Bogdan Bacanu has given solo concerts and concertos with orchestra and ensembles, touring Europe, Asia and America. He has performed with well-known artists like Keiko Abe, Gidon Kremer, Peter Sadlo, Heinrich Schiff and Momoko Kamiya. In a variety of concert projects, he has collaborated with conductors like Dennis Russell Davies, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Cristian Mandeal and Horia Andreescu and leading orchestras.

He has been invited repeatedly to renowned music festivals such as the The Biennal in Brisbane (Australia), Lockenhaus Musik Festival, Festival Grafenegg, Wörthersee Festspiele, Carinthischer Sommer, Donaufestwochen and 'les museiques' Festival Basel (Switzerland).

Bogdan Bacanu is professor at the International Summer Academy in Salzburg and frequently invited jury member at international competitions. Due to the resounding, continual success of his own Marimba festival, he then founded an International Marimba Competition in 2006, which was held in cooperation with the Mozarteum University and the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg as well as with the Bruckner Private University in Linz under his direction.

Composers like Hannes Schalle (Austria), John Thrower (Canada/Germany), Alexander Müllenbach (Luxembourg/Austria) and Emmanuel Sejourne (France) have composed pieces and concertos dedicated to him which he has released in part on his CDs. His multifaceted discography contains solo recordings as well as recordings with orchestras.

Since 2008 Bogdan Bacanu focuses his performance activities on the „Wave Quartet“, which he founded. The Marimba Ensemble debuted at Konzerthaus Berlin performing the C major Concerto for Two Harpsichords, BWV1061a, on four marimbas. The performance earned rave reviews from the audience and critics not least because of the ensemble’s respectful and historically informed interpretation. Baroque music has been a mainstay in the ensemble’s repertoire ever since in the quartet’s versatile repertoire, ranging as far as Astor Piazzolla or, currently a new arrangement of Bizet’s „Carmen“, which will be released on CD by Sony Classical in Spring 2019. Besides the arrangements, original works are a fix part of the repertoire, many of which have been written for the quartet.

Concerts and masterclasses lead the Wave Quartet through Europe and to Asia in important venues like Kölner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthäuser Berlin and Vienna, Müpa Budapest, Town Hall Birmingham, Bozar Brüssel and Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as Suntory Hall in Tokio and to performances with orchestras like Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Romanian National Symphony Orchestra or the L’Orfeo Barockorchester.

Highlights of the last season 2018/2019 were the Premiere of a new concerto by Avner Dorman in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein Vienna, the return to Grafenegg Festival for a concert with the Tonkünstlerorchester under its chief conductor Yutaka Sado, as well as concerts with the Academy of Ancient Music in the Barbican London.

The quartet’s first CD, Aurora Borealis, released in 2008, was followed in 2009 by a recording, made with Salzburg Barock and conductor Peter Sadlo, of the three Bach concertos that had formed the group’s starting point. Senza Ripieno followed in 2011, a programme of seldom-heard baroque music, performed on an intimate scale. 2016 brought the GENUIN Classics release Loco, a programme of tango-infused music by Astor Piazzolla and Carlos Gardel and numbers by the Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Early 2017 brought the world premiere, at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, of Emmanuel Séjourné‘s groundbreaking Gotan Concerto for marimba quartet, percussion and orchestra, a work dedicated to the Wave Quartet. The work features on the album Lauda Concertata, released on GENUIN Classics in late 2016.

The quartet then returned to Bach, collaborating with L'Orfeo Barockorchester , and a recording of the results was released by Sony Classical in September 2017, supporting Bacanu’s great desire to see the marimba established in the music world as a solo instrument. His arrangements of the Concertos BWV 1060 to BWV 1062 for harpsichord as well as further arrangements like the Chaconne in d-minor BWV 1004 and the Concertos for Harpsichord, BWV 1052, 1054 and 1056 demonstrate his respect for the original composition by absolute adherence to the text and are published with the Norwegian edition, NORSK.

Bogdan Bácanu performs exclusively on ADAMS Marimbas. The renowned instrument manufacturer has developed the 'Bogdan Bácanu Signature Series' of marimba mallets and presented a Marimba at the Musikmesse Frankfurt 2015, which was developed together and named after Bogdan Bacanu.

2023/2024
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Biography

Biography

"For me the culture of touching the keys and musical perfection of Bogdan Bacanu on the Marimba can be compared to the way someone like Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays the piano."

"Music is art, and when Bogdan plays on his marimba he creates artwork. There are only a few marimba-players that go beyond “playing a piece of music”, and Bogdan is definitely one of them."

"He is different, he has depth, spirituality and strength.. music is much more than a religion for him, it is what defines him as an artist;it is his reason for being alive!"