The Restitutio Cantemir project in Krakow

On Sunday, May 14, 2023, in Studio Romana Bobrowska – Radio Krakow, the RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR Project was presented, as part of the Romanian Culture Festival in Krakow.

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, is organizing the RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR Project, which emphasizes both the academic and cultural sides of Dimitrie Cantemir's encyclopedic personality.

At the opening of the event, over 150 people visited 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 includes reproductions of the main Cantemir works, literary writings, including musical manuscripts, map reproductions, 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 his refuge in Russia.

In the second part of the event, Mr. Ovidiu Miron, Director of the ICR Warsaw, made a brief presentation of the project at the opening of the RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR concert, performed by the “Anton Pann” Early Music Chamber Ensemble. The audience was truly delighted by the 7 musical compositions performed, which 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 Shape of Letters” and are contextualized sonically with the help of musician-researchers from the “Anton Pann” Ensemble and invited musicians from the USA, Canada, Turkey and Lebanon.

The uniqueness of the show was given by the use of instruments and interpretation specific to the period, along with the holographic video-projection of Prince Dimitrie Cantemir, who personally presented his musical creations.

The RESTITUTIO CANTEMIR project will continue in Berlin, on May 17, 2023, 6:00 PM, in the concert hall of the State Library.

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://tinyurl.com/2b2dzkch

About the Anton Pann Early Music Chamber 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: