Quartets
RomanianGuitar Quartet
Four Romanian soloists who came together in 2026. Their first programme put Vivaldi’s Four Seasons beside four new works written for them, and took it to ten heritage buildings across Romania. Before coming home, Ilie spent his Texas years in the Austin Guitar Quartet.
The players
The Romanian Guitar Quartet brings together four guitarists with careers of their own: a competition laureate, a veteran of fifteen tours, a university teacher from Iași and a nominee for Performer of the Year.
-
Dragoș Ilie
Laureate of more than forty international competitions, Naxos recording artist and stage partner of the violinist Alexandru Tomescu.
-
Costin Soare
One of Romania’s busiest guitarists, with fifteen national and international tours and four CDs.
-
Dan Alexandru Arhire
A university teacher in Iași who has appeared as soloist with Romania’s philharmonic orchestras, with two recordings of his own.
-
Ioan Bănescu
Nominated for Performer of the Year at the UCIMR Gala, and active as a soloist and chamber musician.
First tour
Anotimpuri
The Seasons · 25 July to 9 August 2026 · Ten concerts
For its first tour the quartet played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons arranged for four guitars, a first in Romania, in buildings chosen as much for their history as for their sound: a royal castle, a Baroque palace, Saxon fortified churches in Transylvania, a synagogue in Bukovina, a spa casino and the Palace of Culture in Iași.
Four young composers, chosen through a national call, each wrote a new work for four guitars and tape for one of the lesser-known sites on the route. Two young filmmakers made a short documentary about each of those four places.
The concert at Peleș Castle was fully booked. Most of the others were free.
- Organiser
- Asociația Culturală Kitharalogos
- Funding
- Administrația Fondului Cultural NaționalCo-financed. Supporters included D’Addario
- Partners
- Peleș National Museum, Brukenthal National Museum, Moldova National Museum ComplexIcon Arts Transilvania; UCIMR
- Media partners
- TVR Cultural, Radio România MuzicalRadio România Cultural, Radio Iași, RFI România
- I
La primavera
Spring · RV 269
Birdsong, running springs, a thunderstorm, a goatherd asleep with his dog.
- II
L’estate
Summer · RV 315
Heat that wilts the shepherd and his flock, the cuckoo, then hail.
- III
L’autunno
Autumn · RV 293
The harvest dance, too much wine, sleep, and the hunt at dawn.
- IV
L’inverno
Winter · RV 297
Frozen wind and chattering teeth, rain by the fire, walking on ice.
New works
- Oana Vardianu În așteptarea primăverii (Waiting for Spring)For the Casino at Vatra Dornei. Birdsong, wind and a ticking clock on tape, and a love song from Bukovina in the guitars
- Iuliana Teodorescu Ciocănea Summer skiesFor the fortified church at Cincșor. Vivaldi’s Summer retold as one hot day in the village, around the church bells
- Paul Pintilie Autumn in RadavitzFor the Great Synagogue in Rădăuți, the composer’s home town. Vivaldi’s Autumn gives way to Jewish rhythms and themes from the town’s past
- Oana Adriana Oltean Norðrljós (Northern Lights)The aurora borealis, bells, and a mind caught between two worlds
The route
| Date | Venue | Town |
|---|---|---|
| 25 JulSat, 15:30 | Peleș Castle, Great Concert Hall | Sinaia |
| 26 JulSun, 18:00 | Brukenthal National Museum | Sibiu |
| 27 JulMon, 19:00 | St Margaret’s Evangelical Church | Mediaș |
| 31 JulFri, 17:00 | Fortified church of Biertan | Biertan |
| 1 AugSat, 18:00 | Fortified church of Cincșor | Cincșor |
| 2 AugSun, 19:00 | Evangelical Church | Râșnov |
| 4 AugTue, 18:00 | Fortified church of Moșna | Moșna |
| 7 AugFri, 19:00 | Great Synagogue, at the Sommerfest Rădăuți | Rădăuți |
| 8 AugSat, 18:00 | The Casino | Vatra Dornei |
| 9 AugSun, 18:00 | Palace of Culture, Hall of the Voivodes | Iași |
On film
The concert and the four places
Documentaries
- The Great Synagogue, RădăuțiA short film about the synagogue and the concert, with Costin SoareFilmYouTube
- The fortified church, MoșnaA short film about the church and the concertFilmYouTube
- The fortified church, CincșorA short film about the church and the concertFilmYouTube
- The Casino, Vatra DorneiA short film about the spa casino and the concertFilmYouTube
Photographs
Photographs, portraits and films: Asociația Culturală Kitharalogos, from the tour’s site, anotimpuri.com. Details of the tour from the organisers, the Moldova National Museum Complex (via Agerpres), Radio România Cultural, Radio România Muzical and Radio Iași. Romanian sources are translated.
2021 to 2024
Austin Guitar Quartet
During his doctoral years in Texas, Ilie was one of the four guitarists of the Austin Guitar Quartet, alongside Janet Grohovac, Chad Ibison and Stephen Krishnan.
The quartet is based in Austin, one of the busiest guitar cities in America, and has been featured by Austin Classical Guitar. Its repertoire runs from quartet classics to new music. Before Ilie joined, it had been featured with the choir Conspirare, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and the Texas Guitar Quartet on The Singing Guitar (2020), nominated for a Grammy for Best Choral Performance.
In 2021 the quartet played Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint live for Ballet Austin, with the guitarist Jeremy Waldrip, in Counterpoint, a new dance by Stephen Mills that premiered in the company’s programme JOY / 3 Happy Dances.
The four members also closed Austin Classical Guitar’s spring Play! series with an evening of solos, duos and quartets.
