One of the founders of the Romanian piano school, born on November 11, 1874 in Iaşi to academician and historian Constantin Erbiceanu and to Aglae Negrescu, she trained at the Conservatory of Music in her native city and, after she relocated with her family to Bucharest, at the Negoescu and Notre Dame de Sion boarding schools. Becoming, in 1893, one of the first Romanian women to take her baccalaureate, she continued her studies in Leipzig, with Carl Reinecke and Johannes Weidenbach.

After her debut at the Gewandhaus (1895) and the concert on January 21, 1897 on the inauguration of the new hall of the Gewandhaus, Constanţa Erbiceanu’s career took her to Berlin, Paris, and London, charming audience and critics alike – composers, too, as she became the dedicatee of Moritz Moszkowski’s Quatre morceaux op. 68 – and settling in Berlin (1904), where she studied philosophy at the University and met Max Reger.

Returning to Romania after World War I, Constanţa Erbiceanu was appointed to the piano department of the Bucharest Conservatory of Music (March 1924). Famous for her Rudolf Maria Breithaupt-inspired method, the technique of “the arm that leads” and which consisted of a group of motions meant to secure a style- and work-adapted sound, she also insisted on finger technique, independence, and evenness. With Valentin Gheorghiu and Silvia Şerbescu among her best-known students, she retired in 1938 but actively participated, along with some of her former pupils, in establishing the Școala Medie de Muzică [Middle Music School] in Bucharest (founded December 1, 1949).

From 1948 onwards, Constanţa Erbiceanu no longer left her home on 3 Alexandru Philippide Street, but friends from abroad visited her constantly: Li Ming Cean, Sviatoslav Richter, Iakov Zak, Monique Haas, Marcel Mihalovici. She died on October 10, 1961 and finds her final resting place in the Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest, next to her family.

Author: Ioana Marghita

Translation: Maria Monica Bojin