Ana-Maria Avram (1961–2017) was a Romanian composer, pianist, conductor and musicologist.

Biography

Avram was born in 1961 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, Romania.Schell Michael. "Women in (New) Music: Remembering Ana Maria Avram (1961–2017)", Second Inversion, August 15, 2017

/ref> She attended the

National University of Music Bucharest The National University of Music Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea Naţională de Muzică București, UNMB) is a university-level school of music located in Bucharest, Romania. Established as a school of music in 1863 and reorganized as an academy in ...

from 1980 to 1985, after which she studied aesthetics at Sorbonne, Paris."Ana-Maria Avram", web.archive.org, February 23, 2007

/ref> She was also the co-director of Hyperion Ensemble with her husband

Iancu Dumitrescu Iancu Dumitrescu (born 15 July 1944) is a Romanian avant-garde composer. Life and works Dumitrescu was born in Sibiu, Romania. He received a master's degree in composition in Bucharest, where his teachers included Alfred Mendelsohn. Later, ...

, who founded the ensemble in 1976. Avram also took on an administrative role by creating Spectrum XXI festival and was an early member of the Romanian Community of electronic and computer music. She continues to have performances of her works after her death, like Issue Projects Room's "Tombeau for Ana-Maria Avram" concert. Avram died in 2017.

Musical style

Avram's music synthesized contemporary classical, improvisation, electro-acoustic- and electronic music. Her music tended to move between improvisation and notation and often used electronics to augment her sonic palette. Avram was a proponent of

spectral music Spectral music uses the acoustic properties of sound – or sound spectra – as a basis for composition. Definition Defined in technical language, spectral music is an acoustic musical practice where compositional decisions are often inform ...

, and argued that spectralism is "a specific attitude towards sound" which encompasses "many different viewpoints"."Composer Ana-Maria Avram has died", thewire.co.uk, July 7, 2022

/ref>

References

1961 births 2017 deaths Women classical composers Musicians from Bucharest Romanian classical composers Spectral music Women in electronic music 21st-century classical composers 21st-century women composers {{Romania-composer-stub