Cristian Mandeal is recognized as the most significant Romanian conductor nowadays, his activity extending over a period of four decades. He is nominated as one of Romania‘s ten most influential people and awarded with the country‘s highest accolades for cultural activity. Born in 1946, he graduated from the Bucharest Music Academy and later studied under Herbert von Karajan in Berlin and Sergio Celibidache in Munich. For several years he was the conductor of the Tirgu Mures and Cluj-Napoca philharmonic orhestras. Between 1987 and 2010 ftandeal acted as Principal Conductor and General Music Director of the Bucharest Philharmonic. Alongside these positions he has been Artistic Director of the Northern Israeli Orchestra, Haifa (1999–2002) and the Euskadi Symphony Basque National Orchestra, San Sebastian (2001–2008), Permanent Conductor of the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento (2000–2003), Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, ftanchester (2005-2010 – the first to hold this title in the 150- year history of the orchestra), the Philharmonic orchestras of Belgrade (2006-2007) and Copenhagen (2006-2013).
Cristian Mandeal has conducted some of the wolrd‘s renowned ensembles including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di ftilano, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Staatskapelle Berlin, Vienna State Opera Ochestra, Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, the national orchestras of the Chech Republic, Israel, Belgium, Hungary, Iceland, Catalunya, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma, the Maggio Fiorentino Orchestra in Florence, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the philharmonic orchestras of Munich, Prague, Dublin, Ljubljana, Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Monte Carlo, Kopenhagen, Moscow, Warsaw, Barcelona, Sofia, Belgrade, Tokio, among others.
Cristian Mandeal has participated in the festivals of Edinburgh, Bloomington, Tivoli, the Prague Spring Festival, the Quincena Musical in San Sebastian, Festivals in Istanbul, Ankara, Athens, Thessaloniki, Lisbon, Brescia-Bergamo and Ravelo (Italy), Brno and Bratislava, the Janacek Festival in Ostrava, the BEftUS Festival in Belgrade, the Tokyo Spring Festival, etc., as well as the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, for which he was Artistic Director in 2001 and 2003.
He has collaborated with some of the world‘s leading soloists, including ftaxim Vengerov, Krystian Zimerman, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Rudu Lupu, Mstislav Rostropovich, Ivo Pogorelich, John Lill, Ivry Gitlis, Shlomo Minz, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Maurice Andre, Yefim Bronfman, Fazil Say and many others. Cristian Mandeal commands an extensive repertoire, with a special focus on the music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
He has produced over sixty premiere performances of works both by Romanian and foreign composers, including some that were dedicated personally to him. Unflagging propa- gator of George Enescu, whose music he has sought to make known around the globe, he was the first to introduce the opera Oedipe to audiences in the UK (Edinburgh Festival, 2002) and Italy (Cagliari,2005). Since 2008 he has been the president of the Enescu Society of London.
Among over 35 recorded discs, totalling over 80 titles, he has recorded sixteen albums with the George Enescu Philharmonic for BftG Ariola, including the complete orchestral works of Brahms in nine albums, issued in Germany and the United States in 1996 for the centenary of the composer’s death, and the complete orchestral works of George Enescu in seven albums. The recording of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester has been acclaimed as the best Bruckner recording by any British orchestra. He has also recorded six DVD albums with the George Enescu Philharmonic for AIX Records (USA) and the entire cycle of Bruckner’s Symphonies for Electrecord /Tobu (Japan) with the Transylvania Orchestra of Cluj- Napoca.
Cristian ftandeal has delivered masterclasses at Bloomington and Rutgers Universities in USA, the Royal Northern Academy of Music in Manchester and the Tokyo College of Music. In recent years, he has concentrated his efforts on moulding and cultivating the Romanian Youth Orchestra, which has risen in a very short time to be a worthy representative of contemporary Romanian musical culture, with appearances at international festivals in Berlin, Aix en Provence, Istanbul, Ravello, Toblach, Varna, concerts in Vienna, Linz, Rome, Salzburg, Brussels, Milan, etc.