Launch of the Restitutio Cantemir project

On the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the birth of the great man of culture and prince of Moldova, Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), Computerland Romania, in partnership with the Romanian Cultural Institute, launches the RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR Project, which emphasizes both the academic and cultural sides of Dimitrie Cantemir's encyclopedic personality.

The launch conference of the RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR Project took place on Friday, May 12, 2023, at 12:00, in the Academicians' Club within the Romanian Academy. The event was attended by: 1. Ioan MATEI – Director General – MINISTRY OF CULTURE 2. Ioana DRĂGAN – Director General – Directorate General for Representations Abroad and Historical Communities – ROMANIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE 3. Nicolae BADEA – President – COMPUTERLAND ROMANIA 4. Ioan DUMITRACHE – Secretary General – ROMANIAN ACADEMY 5. Ioan CRISTESCU – Director General – NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ROMANIAN LITERATURE 6. Cristian ANIȚA – Director – NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF ROMANIA 7. Constantin RĂILEANU – President – ANTON PANN ASSOCIATION FOR CULTURE AND TRADITION

In the first stage of the "RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR" Project, in May of this year, as part of the extensive tour supported by the "Anton Pann" Early Music Chamber Ensemble, 5 concerts with musical compositions created by Dimitrie Cantemir will be organized, both in the country and abroad:
• Krakow – May 14, 2023, 6:00 PM – Studio Romana Bobrowska – Radio Krakow
• Berlin – May 17, 2023, 6:00 PM – The Concert Hall of the Berlin State Library
• Brussels – May 22, 2023, 6:00 PM – BOZAR
• Paris – May 24, 2023, 6:00 PM – Byzantine Hall of the Behague Palace
• Iași – May 26, 2023, 6:00 PM – Union Hall

The concerts will feature 7 musical compositions that are known with certainty to have been created by Dimitrie Cantemir. The compositions are taken from his work "The Book of the Science of Music According to the Form of Letters" and are contextualized sonically with the help of musician-researchers from the "Anton Pann" Early Music Chamber Ensemble and guest musicians from the USA, Canada, Turkey and Lebanon.

The uniqueness of the show will be given by the use of instruments and interpretation specific to the period, along with the image of Dimitrie Cantemir, who will animate each concert.

Before the start of each concert, in the foyer, you can visit the photo-documentary exhibition with images based on documents and artifacts from the life of Dimitrie Cantemir, more precisely from the 17th-18th centuries, organized by the National Archives of Romania, in partnership with the Romanian Academy, the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and the National Museum of Romanian Literature.

The RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR exhibition will include a number of 25 paintings on canvas (90×70 cm) mounted on adjustable aluminum metal easels.
In terms of content, the exhibition will include reproductions of Cantemir's main works, literary writings, including musical manuscripts. Along with these archival documents, to contextualize them, the exhibition will contain reproductions of maps, stamps and validation marks (seals) that cover both the period of Prince Cantemir's stay in Istanbul, the years of his reign on the throne of Moldova, as well as the period of refuge in Russia.

In partnership with the Romanian Academy and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, within the Project, a series of academic panels on different fields will be organized by the end of this year, supported by specialists proposed in agreement with both institutions, with specializations on each field/activity of Prince Cantemir's personality.

As part of the Project, the documentary film RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR will also be produced, which will contain, in addition to an extensive presentation of Dimitrie Cantemir, interviews with Mr. Acad. Ioan Aurel Pop and Prof. Adrian Cioroianu.

The RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR project will continue until the end of this year, with the second stage of cultural events to be organized between September and November 2023:

3 international concerts + photo-documentary exhibition:
Istanbul – September – October 2023
Ankara – September – October 2023
Chisinau – October – November 2023

10 national concerts + photo-documentary exhibition:
Constanta, Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Timisoara, Alba-Iulia, Galati, Craiova and Bucharest – October 2023.

Project Partners: Romanian Academy, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Romanian Cultural Institute, National Museum of Romanian Literature, National Archives of Romania, Anton Pann Association for Culture and Tradition, Iași City Hall, National Athenaeum of Iași, Metropolitanate of Moldova and Bucovina, Romanian Television Society, Radio Romania, Trinitas TV, Simavi, Prodal 94, Carpatina and Romfilatelia.

The project is included in the Calendar of Events of the Ministry of Culture, which also accepted its patronage. The organization of the project attempts to reflect the encyclopedic dimension of Dimitrie Cantemir's life and work.

For more details regarding this Project, please contact Ms. Laura Cojocaru-Drăguleanu, Marketing & PR Manager, Computerland Romania, at tel: 0759.017.257, e-mail: laura.draguleanu@computerland.ro.

More images promoting the Project can be downloaded by accessing the link: https://shorturl.at/imyZ4

About the Anton Pann Early Music Ensemble

The Anton Pann Ensemble (est. 2003), named after the 19th-century Wallachian composer Anton Pann, is the first and only professional group in Romania that has chosen as its mission the rediscovery of the beauty of early Romanian music and sharing it, with joy, with the public, generating a revitalization of this repertoire and subsequently a stream of inspiration for other groups.

The rediscovery and promotion of music from the Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century, by the Anton Pann Ensemble, aims to enhance the cultural value and the Romanian musical tradition. It is the only Romanian ensemble that has recorded, for the first time in the world, all the compositions with certain authorship of Prince Dimitrie Cantemir in a single volume.

As a sign of recognition of their effort and professionalism, the Anton Pann Ensemble was invited to perform at the Europalia Festival in 2019, representing Romanian classical court music. During the years of activity, the ensemble has performed hundreds of concerts in countries such as: England, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Moldova, Belgium, France, Poland, Germany, Ukraine and at the national level: Bucharest, Timișoara, Brașov, Sibiu, Pitești, Iași, Constanța, Galați, Târgu Mureș, Cluj Napoca, Vaslui, Piatra-Neamț, Drobeta Turnu-Severin, Focșani, etc.

The musicians who make up the ensemble are professionals in the field, award winners in countless competitions, doctors of music and university professors. All these elements converge to an exceptional concert result.

Composition of the Anton Pann Ensemble: