GEORGE ENESCU

George Enescu (19 August 1881, Liveni,Botosani - 4 May 1955, Paris) was a Romanian composer, violonist, pianist, conductor and teacher. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood and was considered a child prodigy. George created his first musical composition at the age of five. Shortly his father presented him to the professor Eduard Cadella. At the age of seven, he entered the Vienna Conservatory and gradueded before his 13th birthday, earning the silver medal.

In 1985 he went to Paris to continue his studies. His most popular compositions being the two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901-2), the opera OEpedia (1936).

In 1923 he made his debut as a conductor in a concert given by the Philadelphia Orchestra in New York City. It was in America in the 1920s, that Enescu was first presented to make recordings as a violonist. He appeared in the American orchestra in 1936 as a conductor. In 1935, he conducted the Orchestre Sympanique de Paris and Yehudi Menuhim.

In 1939 he married Maria Rosetti, a goog friend of the future Queen Marie of Romania.

Enescu lived in the Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei Bucuresti.

He lived in Paris and Romania, but after World Wor II and the Soviet occupation of Romania, he remained in Paris.

He promoted contemporary Romania music. On his death in 1955, George Enescu was interred in the Pere Hacise Cemetery in Paris.

Today, Bucuresti houses a museum in his memory, and the Symphony Orchestra of Bucuresti,and the George Enescu Festival- founded by his friends.
ROMANIAN RAPSODY composed by GEORGE ENESCU