Romanian composer, musicologist, academician and teacher, Ștefan Niculescu (July 31, 1927, Moreni – January 22, 2008, Bucharest) studied at the Mihai Viteazul College (1938-46) and graduated the Academy of Music (1957) in Bucharest. Researcher at the Institute of Art History of the Romanian Academy (1960-63) and professor of Composition and Musical Analysis at the Academy of Music (from 1963) he participated in the Darmstadt Summer Courses (1966-69), returning as a teacher (1993) and holding the position of composer-in-residence in Berlin as guest of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (1971-72).

Lecturing in Zagreb, Paris, Valencia, or Darmstadt and founder of the International Week of New Music in Bucharest (1991), Ștefan Niculescu was associate (1993) and full member (1996) of the Romanian Academy. Recipient of such important awards as the Herder Prize (1994) and the Musicology Award of the Académie Française (1972), he was appointed honorary Prorector of the National University of Music in Bucharest.

Selected musical works: Heteromorphie for orchestra (1967), Aforisme de Heraclit [Heraclitus Aphorisms] (1969), Ison I (1973), Ison II (1975), Echos I for violin (1977), Sincronie II [Synchrony II] for orchestra (1981), Invocatio (1988), Axion [Axion Estin] for women’s choir and saxophone (1992).

Selected theoretical works: Eterofonia [On Heterophony] (1969), O teorie a sintaxei muzicale [A Theory of Musical Syntax] (1973), Între individual şi general [Between the Individual and the General] (1983), Un nou spirit al timpului in muzică [A New Zeitgeist in Music] (1986), Reflecţii despre muzică [Thoughts on Music] (1980).

Petre Fugaciu