Classical guitar / Iași, Romania
Naxos recording artist, laureate of more than forty international competitions, stage partner of the violinist Alexandru Tomescu, and Assistant Professor at the George Enescu National University of Arts in Iași.
Introduction
Dragoș Ilie learned his first chords from his father in Iași. He has since won more than forty prizes at international competitions, among them Koblenz, Changsha and the Guitar Foundation of America, recorded the complete guitar sonatas of Wenzel Thomas Matiegka for Naxos, and played the Romanian Athenaeum and the George Enescu Festival. Since 2022 he has toured Romania with the violinist Alexandru Tomescu and the 1702 “Elder-Voicu” Stradivarius.
A true revelation of recent years on Romanian concert stages.
New on Naxos
Wenzel Thomas Matiegka (1773–1830) was born in Bohemia, studied law in Prague and gave it up for music in 1800. In Vienna he worked as an organist and choirmaster, taught guitar and piano, and moved in Schubert’s circle. His sonatas draw on Haydn and Mozart, and for two centuries they have stood in the shadow of Sor and Giuliani.
This first volume of Ilie’s complete cycle holds both Grande Sonates of 1808, the Sonata in B minor, Op. 23, and the Sonate progressive, Op. 17. It was recorded in January 2025 with producer Norbert Kraft, on a guitar by Martin Blackwell. Volume 2 completes the set later in 2026.
8–10 January 2025, St Paul’s Anglican Church, Newmarket, Ontario
Norbert Kraft
Martin Blackwell, British Columbia
Graham Wade
The duo
Since 2022 Ilie has been the stage partner of Alexandru Tomescu, the Romanian violinist who has played the 1702 “Elder-Voicu” Stradivarius, a national treasure, for almost two decades. Together they have made three national tours with nearly sixty concerts in cities and villages across Romania, recorded a CD, and played the opening concert of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival and the first night of the George Enescu Festival Square.
A remarkable artist, with whom I have already given dozens of concerts.
2022 17 concerts
Their first programme together: Paganini’s sonatas for violin and guitar, in thirteen Romanian cities.
2025 22 concerts
Enescu’s two Romanian Rhapsodies in Ilie’s arrangements for violin and guitar, seventy years after the composer’s death, with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
2026 20 concerts
With the bandoneonist Omar Massa, for the 150th anniversary of Constantin Brâncuși’s birth, under the High Patronage of the President of Romania.
The quartet
In 2026 Ilie and three of Romania’s leading guitarists, Costin Soare, Dan Alexandru Arhire and Ioan Bănescu, formed a new quartet. Their first tour, Anotimpuri, set Vivaldi’s Four Seasons beside four new works written for them, in ten heritage buildings from Peleș Castle to the Palace of Culture in Iași.
Two Saxon fortified churches, the Great Synagogue in Rădăuți and the old spa casino at Vatra Dornei each received a new piece for four guitars and tape, and a short documentary film.
Competitions
| Year | Competition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Guitar Foundation of America, International Concert Artist CompetitionUnited States | Third Prize |
| 2023 | GCC Changsha International Guitar FestivalChangsha, China. Artist category | First Prize |
| 2022 | Tokyo International Guitar Competition65th edition, Hakuju Hall, Tokyo | Second Prize |
| 2022 | Koblenz International Guitar Competition “Hubert Käppel”Koblenz, Germany | Second Prize |
| 2020 | New York Guitar CompetitionNew York Guitar Seminar at Mannes | Grand Prize |
| 2020 | International GuitarLab CompetitionFirst edition, Romania | First Prize |
| 2018 | Indiana International Guitar CompetitionJacobs School of Music, Bloomington. Open division | First Prizeshared |
| 2018 | Texas A&M International Guitar Symposium and CompetitionCollege Station, Texas | First Prize |
Other prizes include the Culiacán International Competition, the Miami Guitar Festival, the Columbus Guitar Symposium, the Texas Guitar Competition, the ECU and Florida guitar festivals, and the Iași Guitar Festival.
On stage
Ilie performs as a soloist, with orchestras and in chamber music. He has appeared with the Transilvania State Philharmonic, the Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic and both orchestras of Romanian Radio, and given concerts in London, Paris, Lyon, Venice, Rome, Naples, Madrid, Salamanca and Tokyo. In the United States he has played for guitar societies and concert series in Atlanta, Chattanooga, New Orleans, Austin, West Texas, San Jose, Pacific Grove, DeKalb and southern Oregon.
Europe and Asia
United States
Watch
Teaching
Ilie is Assistant Professor at the George Enescu National University of Arts in Iași, the city where he started. Before returning he spent four years as teaching assistant in Adam Holzman’s guitar studio at the University of Texas at Austin.
An injury in his student years limited his practice for nearly two years. He recovered through Body Mapping, a method of body awareness for musicians, and it now runs through his teaching. He leads the Enescu Experience camp at Cabana Caraiman and the Guitar Lab seminars in five Romanian cities, and teaches online through tonebase.
Although the injury was challenging, it was one of the best life lessons that I have ever gotten.
Dragoș Ilie, 2018Notices
Dragoș is a narrator who uses the guitar to tell a story from his captivating, thoughtful perspective.
Beautiful tone, sensitivity and great musicianship. Dragoș has a wonderful command of our instrument! A bright present and even brighter future.
The most renowned and most awarded Romanian guitarist on the international stage.
Concerts
Sala Radio, Bucharest. Wednesday, 19:00
With the Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra and conductor Christian Câșleanu, in the Moștenitorii României Muzicale series. Broadcast live on Radio România Muzical and Radio România Cultural.
Recent
25 Jul–9 Aug2026
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with four new works by young Romanian composers, in ten heritage venues from Peleș Castle to the Palace of Culture in Iași.
RomaniaTen venues
13 Jun–18 Jul2026
Twenty concerts with Alexandru Tomescu and Omar Massa for Brâncuși’s 150th anniversary, from the Timișoara Opera to the sculptor’s birthplace at Hobița.
RomaniaTwenty venues
7 May2026
With Alexandru Tomescu. Enescu, Porumbescu, Bartók and Falla in Ilie’s transcriptions.
MadridReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
