Aesthetic Profile

Founded in Bucharest in December 1982, following Sorin Lerescu's initiative, the Group of New Music TRAIECT has had since its start as guiding light the promoting of contemporary works, particularly Romanian ones. TRAIECT has become, in its more than 20 years lifetime of concerts, both home and abroad, an ensemble dedicated to the most recent composing experiences yet, as well, a true school for the formation of new music interpreters. Numerous works have been written as a result of TRAIECT's commissioning them, others have been dedicated to the ensemble by composers from various countries.The premiere/first audition was a constant of TRAIECT's concerts, a trademark just like the idea of drawing towards the values of contemporary music more and more people from the general public.TRAIECT has, following this course, promoted the concept of 'contemporary music show', joining to it various ways of visualizing music: dancing, computer and graphic imagery, light works, poetry, all in an all-comprising, unifying vision on the meanings and purposes of art in today's world.

REPERTOIRE

A large number of Romanian composers have been played in TRAIECT concerts or have dedicated works to the ensemble:
Tiberiu Olah, Anatol Vieru, Ştefan Niculescu, Aurel Stroe, Wilhelm Berger, Cornel Ţăranu, Myriam Marbé, Nicolae Brînduş, Edé Terényi, Adrian Iorgulescu, Ulpiu Vlad, Doru Popovici, Viorel Creţu, Corneliu Cezar, Octavian Nemescu, Călin Ioachimescu, Dan Constantinescu, Valentin Timaru, Emil Lerescu, Alexandru Paşcanu, Cesar Marinovici, Cornelia Tăutu, Vasile Timiş, Liana Alexandra, Iancu Dumitrescu, Maia Ciobanu, Costin Cazaban, Sorin Lerescu, Horia Şurianu, Liviu Dănceanu, Doina Rotaru, Mihaela Stănculescu-Vosganian, Dan Dediu, Petru Stoianov, Cristian Brâncuşi, Fred Popovici, Dora Cojocaru, Carmen Maria Cârneci, Dana Teodorescu, George Balint, Carmen Petra-Basacopol, Livia Teodorescu, Maya Badian.

The ensemble's repertoire also includes works by:
Anton Webern, Olivier Messiaen, Bohuslav Martinu, André Jolivet, Iannis Xenakis, Fernando Grillo, Arne Mellnäs, Alois Pińos, Dieter Schnebel, Elizabeth Hayden Pizer, Ghenadie Ciobanu, Vladimir Beleav, Laurenţiu Gondiu, Máte Hollós, Avdo Smailović, Magnus Lindberg, Jarmo Sermilä, Erkki Jokinen, Rózsa Pál, Marcella Mandanici, Nils Henrik Asheim, Donald Harris, Peter Copley, Juraj Benes, Pippo Molino, Jež Jakob, Lubor Barta, Jukka Tiensuu, Leonciusz Ciuciura, Manuel Enriquez, Raoul de Smet, Jacqueline Fontyn, Siegfried Fink, Tapio Tuomela, Siegfried Nauman, Leontios Hadjileontiadis, Dmitry Lybin, James Clarke, Ian Wilson, Eve Duncan, Menachem Zur, Jurgis Juozapaitis, Graciela Paraskevaidis, Valentino Bucchi, Rodolfo Bramucci, Andrea Talmelli, Joshua Chan, John McLachlan, Athanasia Tzanou, Brigid Burke, Warren Burt, Peter Tahourdin, Howard Dillon, Joseph Giovinazzo, Brendan Colbert, Brenton Broadstock, Anna Korotkina, Sungji Hong, Kanako Okamoto, Dusan Bavdek, Fredrik Schwenk, Wolfgang Andreas Schulz .

Concerts, Festivals

The TRAIECT New Music Group has performed in Bucharest, at the concert halls of the Romanian Broadcasting Society, the George Enescu Philharmonic, the National Music University of Bucharest, the Cantacuzino Palace Hall, Dalles Hall, the Museum of Romanian Literature, the Nottara Museum, the ARCUB Hall, as well as foreign cultural centers in Bucharest and other major Romanian cities: Timişoara, Cluj-Napoca, Piteşti, Giurgiu, Tg. Neamţ, Satu Mare. The group has also been a part of major international festivals:
The "GEORGE ENESCU" International Festival - Bucharest (1985, 1988, 2005)
The international Festival "TIMIŞOARA MUZICALĂ" (1985)
The international Festival "TOAMNA MUZICALĂ CLUJEANĂ" (1993, 1999)
The international Festival "PRIMĂVARA MUZICALĂ GIURGIUVEANĂ" (1994, 1998, 1999)
The international Festival "THE THIRD ANNUAL REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC" - Belgrad/Sremski Karlovci , Serbia and Montenegro (Yugoslavia) (1994)
The international Festival "WEEK OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC" - Gent, Belgium(1995)
ISCM "WORLD MUSIC DAYS" - Cluj-Napoca, Chişinău, Romania / Republic of Moldova (1999)
The international Festival "TWO DAYS AND TWO NIGHTS OF NEW MUSIC" - Odessa, Ukraine (2000)
"COMPOSITORI A CONFRONTO" - Reggio Emilia, Italy (2001)
"INTERNATIONAL NEW MUSIC WEEK" - Bucharest (1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004)
The international Festival "MEETINGS OF NEW MUSIC" - Brăila (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)
The international Festival "DAYS OF NEW MUSIC" - Chişinău, Republic of Moldova (1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004)

TRAIECT have also worked together with prestigious soloists from Romania and abroad:
Angelica Cathariou (Greece), Barrie Webb (Great Britain), Pierre Yves-Artaud (France), Martha Kessler, Pompei Hărăşteanu, Steliana Calos, Mihai Vârtosu, Mădălina Filimon-Gherman.

TRAIECT began and accomplished shows of contemporary musical expression where poetry,the coreographic image and color were joined in promoting new music. Guests in the concert-shows held by TRAIECT include the CONTEMP dance ensemble, lead by Adina Cezar, Mihaela Mihai Paun and Leopoldina Bălănuţă, actresses and the choreographer Liliana Iorgulescu.

Recordings

TRAIECT has recorded a series of works of Romanian and foreign music with the Romanian Radio Corporation, the Romanian Television, TV SIGMA, Beogradski Televizja (Serbia and Montenegro), TVM (Republic of Moldova), Radio 3 Gent (Belgium), TvRM.

The ensemble's intepretations were featured on LP discs, audio tapes and CD's published by ELECTRECORD (1988,1991), by the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Society, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists' Union and INTERCONT MUSIC (1997), EDITURA MUZICALĂ (2004), METTIER Sound & Vision Ltd. (Great Britain, 2004).

Awards, Distinctions

In 1983, the ensemble was awarded the Romanian Musical Critics' Prize following the large number of first auditions that featured in its concerts, and in 1998 it has been awarded the Diploma of the 7th Edition of the International Festival "Primăvara Muzicală Giurgiuveană" ('The Giurgiu Musical Spring').

Critics' voices

A group of young interpreters have imagined an original and enthralling itinerary: to present new and extremely new Romanian music - in relation to its emergences in the worlds - under the brand name TRAIECT - The Group of New Music, led by the gifted composer Sorin Lerescu. (Nicolae Brânduş, "Muzica", no. 4, 1983, Bucharest)

The importance of TRAIECT as a group - in order to filter and enhance ideas in Romanian music and for its good spreading - I believe needs no further proof. Following so many concerts, where the first audtions-some of them significant - have been accomplished with the competence of penetrating the intended meaning of a piece of music, and the welcome encores of some massive works from the latter years' music have been augmented through some novel perspectives on them, efficiently meaningful. TRAIECT the band has a definite reputation of seriousness and intelligent professionalism. The level of quality in interpretation that TRAIECT have reached under Sorin Lerescu is elevated: the players are becoming ideal working partners of the composers, which in turn constitutes the obvious brand of any band playing (true) contemporary music. (Fred Popovici, "Muzica", no.2, 1985, Bucharest)

The presence of the New Music Group TRAIECT inRomania's musical circles is not ostentatious. This group's members - all professional musicians - are tenaciously following several forceful lines that have made TRAIECT a commanding emblem. In their schedules, TRAIECT have always sought to present first auditions in a high quality, professional manner which could be deemed worthy of offering as a model for future players. (Cristina Sârbu, "Cotidianul", no.126, 1993, Bucharest)

TRAIECT - New Music Group's class was felt even from the emergence of the seven on the Organ Hall of Kishinev's stage. Led by Sorin Lerescu, of course. We shall try to appear as mere groundlings, simple spectators contemplating a paradoxical combination of the ancient with the modern, of the gaudy with the harmony of sound formulae in works signed by Nils Henrik Asheim, Peter Copley, Erkki Jokinen, intepreted passionately yet with finesse by musicians completely dominating their traditional or transfigured up to the point of sophistication instruments. Ending with Eikona, a piece for seven instruments by Sorin Lerescu, the concert stands in a league of its own within the Festival of New Music. (Irina Nechit, "Literatura şi Arta", no.19, 1993, Chişinău)

By marking an evident step forward in homogenizing sound representation, in balancing instrumental dosages, in the technique of juxtaposing individual lines with collective ones, TRAIECT have professionally approached both remoter creations, from a chronological perspective (such as Dan Constantinescu's 1964 Sonata), but also more up-to-date reflections on the sound journey (most recent of these being the work of Cornel Ţăranu, dating from 1994) [...] the TRAIECT band's concert, completed with Horia Şurianu's pages (tributaries to a remodeling, by the clarinet and piano, of melodical relationships extracted from natural resonance), Valentin Timaru's (whose single-line percussion discourse is characterized by gesture-like micro-cesures) and Dan Constantinescu's (who builds, by means of a language inspired from lyrical Berg's atonality, a classical pattern) has captured very accurately the diversity of the Romanian composers' spectrum, both technically and in terms of relevance (such as reaccepting natural sounds, rejecting it later in favor of behavioral disparateness or, just, returning into the past). I have applauded an accomplished intepretation while also reflecting on the multiple semantic relevance of creation, on its place in todayness.
(Loredana Baltazar, "Muzica", no. 4, 1995, Bucharest)

Celebrating 15 years since TRAIECT's inception at the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation has been one of the few moments when I was able to grasp the fact that there are, still, prophets in their own respective countries! This anniversary was enhanced by the publishing of the band's first audio tape. The assiduously promoted creation from TRAIECT may be considered as an integral part of the so-called archetypal current. The natural resonance of sound, the repetitiveness, the quaint-modal systems as well as the counterpoint-like structures, the gathering of senses by ingenious correspondences between words, sounds, colors, movement, instrumental theater elements, the technique of the palimpsest, of stratifying different composing processes belonging to different eras, all these confer the music played by this ensemble richnesss, sensibility and even a high degree of accessibility; maybe due to the achetypal symbols, common to poetry but also paintings by Horia Bernea, Sorin Dumitrescu, Marin Gherasim, Alexandru Chira, Wanda Mihuleac. Wanda Mihuleac is in fact the designer for the tape's cover. One can notice the forming of a polisemantic cultural space, with intertextuality in front, where everyone is allowed "access" to one or more levels of understanding, according to one's personal training. Both the interpreters and the audience are accomplishing a real action of "knowledge in the mirror", I would say "redeeming" somehow the integrity of the work as such.[...] Here we have an accomplishment not only to be acknowledged but also perpetuated. (Despina Petecel-Theodoru, "România liberă", no. 2207, 1997, Bucharest)

Most evidently, the TRAIECT group is still one of the more pertinent ensembles when it comes to promoting contemporary music.The Cluj-Napoca concert has confirmed once more the natural qualities of those involved, being thus a welcome moment amongst the Festival's events. (ISCM World Music Days, 1999 - Ecaterina Ardelean, "Actualitatea muzicală", no.232, 1999, Bucharest)

Yet again in the Organ Hall the closing concert took place. The TRAIECT ensemble, led by Sorin Lerescu, played - with the professionalism we have come to expect over the years from them - the final six works from the Kishinev festival's program. (Sorina Bobeică, "Actualitatea muzicală", no.232, 1999, Bucharest)

Sorin Lerescu's initiative - TRAIECT's appearance at this year's edition of the International New Music Week festival was of a different nature. This distinctiveness came from, first of all, the repertoire's structure: works by contemporary composers from afar (Japan, Canada), but also nigh (Republic of Moldova); works meant for different numerical formula, from solo to octets, two of which were completely new and heard for the first time. On the other hand, the main event status of TRAIECT's performance in the seventh day - out of eight - of the festival in the series adeptly called "New music afternoons: concerts featuring ensembles" was confirmed by inviting the Englishman trombone player Barrie Webb, who, although one could say has been traditionally associated with the IN MW festival, still manages to surprise on every occasion by the force of his interpreting personality, characterized by an exceptional virtuosity and an outpouring imagination. Barrie Webb himself has, in fact, been the one to open the program with a piece heard in premiere by the public, meant for trombone solo and which was dedicated to him by the Japanese composer Tatsuya Kawasoi, entitled Arrow-Cycle IVh. This was a music where the realm of ideas deals with the two ways that time manifests itself: as a cycle and as history, and the substance of the sound is densely charged with a multitude of colors drawn from the bursting potential of the main instrument. With the following work we continued with the solo performances: Incantation for Clarinet solo by Maya Badian (a Romanian composer residing in Canada). As we were expecting from the title, the instrument's areas of lyric expresiveness were flown over, laid in a flowing and refined atmosphere by Alexandru Popescu the clarinettist, a member of the TRAIECT ensemble. The number of players was visibly increased with the third piece in the day's program, Impetuoso for five by Sungji Hong, a South Korean female composer. Here, too, the meaning of the work's title was in accord with the music being played, in a gradual offloading of an over-charged energy, through a complex formal labor. The penultimate work from the day's schedule brought Barrie Webb back on center stage, this time having alongside him all of TRAIECT's players: Viorica Nagy (cello), Georgeta Scurtu (percussion), Geanina Săveanu (violin), Alexandru Hanganu (flute), Andrei Podlacha (piano), Alexandru Popescu (clarinet), Eugen Niţă (trombone). It was a piece for trombone solo with seven accompanying players, at its first contact with an audience anywhere in the world, in fact a small and poetic concerting work signed by Kanako Okamoto, a female composer of Japan. Bearing the title The West Wind, The East Land, the play places in front of our perception an apprehension of the phenomena that the wind as sound and a harbinger of a new spring (symbolizing hope and harmony) generates. We deemed as remarkable the union of dynamic relationships between the soloist and the ensebmle, as well as the strategy for expressing the musical matter, in a composing endeavor which, on a micro scale, has managed to brilliantly suggest the genre of concerting symphony. If the in the opening act of TRAIECT's concert we had the opportunity to listen to the guest (Barrie Webb), we were presented at the end with the host's performance, in its complete formula of seven, conducted by Sorin Lerescu. This closing act which employed the aforementioned people's combined efforts was the piece Bicordie by Laurenţiu Gondiu of Republic of Moldova (now a resident of Romania). The simplicity of the musical matter, structured only on two heights traveling through different registers allowed the focusing of the interpretation on the instrumental distribution, by means of a musical discourse not lacking in fervor and a tonical orchestral harmony. (George Balint, "Muzica", no. 3, 2004, Bucharest)

TRAIECT at 20-Anniversary Thoughts

TRAIECT is an ensemble that has performed the honorable duty of promoting authentic values of indigenous musical creations, especially those belonging to the area of new music. Its members are each accomplished interpreters, soloists tha have managed to melt their personal style into a single, united one,giving a flavor of specific and professionalism to the interpreting culture. An exceptional merit in the contouring of this pleasing artistic destiny must be granted to the leader of the TRAIECT group, Sorin Lerescu the composer. Twenty years on, I wish these devoted servants of contemporary music success in interpreting, fresh accomplishments and artistic longevity. (Adrian Iorgulescu)

The TRAIECT ensemble, led by the sensitive and distinguished composer Sorin Lerescu has succeeded in engraving its trajectory in the history of Romanian contemporary music, acting as an admirable ambassador of this music. (Octavian Nemescu)

For two decades, the TRAIECT New Music ensemble has kept proving that interpreting, when it is effected with talent, is in itself creation. Remembering the composers and the pieces for whom and which the TRAIECT ensemble has been an incentive and a fountain of inspiration - as is the case with some of my own works - we can understand the significant contribution that the members of this band have brought to the development of contemporary Romanian music. A dedicated contribution combined with professionalism, hard work and talent. As for Sorin Lerescu, the core and soul of this ensemble but also one of the major figures of today's Romanian composers, he is fully worthy of our gratitude not just for the way he knows to translate our works but just as much for the way he knows how to be a very good friend. (Mihaela Stănculescu-Vosganian)

Sorin? TRAIECT? A perfect ecuation! The miracle of guessing-lucidly, systematically- the deepest dreams of his fellow journeymen. The push towards self discovery, by inciting the stringency of the project shared with the others... An endless trajectory, in support of adventure… (Fred Popovici)

Following two decades of uninhibited and praiseworthy labor in the field of art, TRAIECT has passed its examination in the fabulous science of restoring contemporary music, assisted by a demanding and indispensable comission, formed by specialists such as: rigor, fidelity, exactness or inspiration. A trial as a dance of avatars, be they winged or broken, as a game of a grandiose retrospection, but also a document that discretely glosses revelations and nostalgias, or perhaps like a protocol announcing a party not to be refused. Only that whoever takes part, working enthusiastically and desirably has the right to party. Certainly TRAIECT is among the guests of honor. Let us support and respect TRAIECT! Let's partake and party! (Liviu Dănceanu)

TRAIECT means to me the certainty of an idea of musical construction and the symbol under which I have understood, in due time, the value of friendship and giving oneself in a musical context. (Sorin Lerescu)

AUDIO FILES (fragments)

VIDEO FILES (fragments)

Anniversary Concert, TRAIECT (15 years) - (48MB)
1997, Ateneul Român, TRAIECT New Music Group
Sorin Lerescu - SIDE SHOW
Conductor: Sorin Lerescu
Soloist: Barrie Webb - trombone (Great Britain)

Anniversary Concert, TRAIECT (20 years) - (38MB)
10.12.2002, Studioul "Mihail Jora", The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Society, TRAIECT New Music Group
Sorin Lerescu - Proportions II
Conductor: Sorin Lerescu
Soloist: Pierre Yves Artaud - flute (France)

PHOTO GALLERY

The International Festival Week of Contemporary Music
Gent (Belgium)
1995 Edition
Royal Conservatory

Cătălin Ţuţuianu, Sorin Oancea, Viorica Nagy, Monica Teodorescu
Sorin Lerescu, Georgeta Scurtu, Andrei Podlacha, Cătălin Bucerzan

Dalles Hall, Bucharest 1996

Sorin Lerescu, Georgeta Scurtu, Viorica Nagy, Lucica Nicolae, Cătălin Bucerzan
Cătălin Ţuţuianu, Monica Teodorescu, Sorin Oancea

The International Festival Primăvara muzicală giurgiuveană Giurgiu
1998 Edition
TRAIECT Concert
Teatrul Valah

Alexandru Hanganu, Cătălin Ţuţuianu, Viorica Nagy, Georgeta Scurtu
Sorin Lerescu, Sorin Oancea, Leonard Pădureţ

The International Festival MEETINGS OF NEW MUSIC Brăila
1998 Edition
TRAIECT Concert
"Pro Arte" Hall

Sorin Lerescu, Sorin Oancea, Barrie Webb (Marea Britanie)
Georgeta Scurtu, Leonard Pădureţ

The International Festival MEETINGS OF NEW MUSIC Brăila
1999 Edition
TRAIECT Concert
Teatrul "Maria Filotti"

Andrei Podlacha, Cătălin Ţuţuianu, Alexandru Hanganu, Răzvan Gachi
Leonard Pădureţ, Viorica Nagy, Sorin Lerescu, Georgeta Scurtu

The International Festival MEETINGS OF NEW MUSIC Brăila
2001 Edition
TRAIECT Concert
Teatrul "Maria Filotti"

Georgeta Scurtu, Andrei Podlacha, Angelica Cathariou (Grecia)
Sorin Lerescu, Leontios Hadgileontiadis (Grecia), Geanina Săveanu
Viorica Nagy, Alexandru Hanganu, Ruslan Solcan, Răzvan Gachi

The International Festival MEETINGS OF NEW MUSIC Brăila
2003 Edition
TRAIECT Concert
Teatrul "Maria Filotti"

Geanina Săveanu, Sorin Lerescu, Viorica Nagy, Alexandru Popescu, Eugen Niţă

14^th International New Music Week Bucharest 2004
TRAIECT Concert
Aula Palatului Cantacuzino

Sorin Lerescu, Geanina Săveanu, Georgeta Scurtu, Andrei Podlacha, Viorica Nagy

Text offered by Mr. Sorin LERESCU (last update september 2005)