Negruțiu ’13 Appointed Director of Piano Studies and Associate Professor of Piano at Northern Arizona University
Silvan Negruțiu ’13 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance) was appointed director of piano studies and associate professor of piano at Northern Arizona University (NAU) beginning in fall 2021. He will join the NAU School of Music faculty in August after eight years at Millikin University School of Music in Illinois where he currently serves as chair of keyboard and instrumental studies and associate professor of piano. Dr. Negruțiu studied with Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, Chair of Keyboard Division and Professor of Piano John O’Conor, Mus.D.
Hailed as “a startling and authentic pianist displaying rich imagination and brilliant vigor, whose precision and splendor of keyboard sound certainly inspire a transcendental reality” (The Musical News Journal, Bucharest), Negruţiu has established himself as one of the leading musicians of his generation. He has performed on major international stages, from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to Ireland’s National Concert Hall, the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, the Xi’an Concert Hall in China, the Showa Recital Hall in Tokyo and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
A laureate of numerous international piano competitions, including the Rome and Salerno (Italy), the Seiler (Bulgaria), the Feis Ceoil (Ireland), and the Konzerteum (Greece), Negruțiu has appeared as soloist with prestigious orchestras, including the Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra, Alicante Philharmonic, George Enescu Philharmonic and Dublin Symphony Orchestra. He is the recipient of the 2016 Rising Star Award from Shenandoah Conservatory, the 2009 Gaiety Award in Ireland, the Romanian Government Fellowship in 2007, the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research Award of Excellence in 2002, and the 2001 Eugen Barbu Award for excellence in performing activity.
In high demand as a performer, clinician, adjudicator and speaker, Negruțiu appears frequently as an artist-teacher at international music festivals across Europe, America and Asia. He has been praised for his innovative programming in concerts and recordings, which often combines mainstream and rare piano repertoire. He promotes the music of Romanian composers, with a primary focus on George Enescu and Constantin Silvestri. In May 2020, he performed two virtual concerts at the invitation of the George Enescu National Museum in Bucharest as part of their Online Recital Series, celebrating the anniversaries of Enescu and Silvestri. This season he is also presenting a series of all-Beethoven recitals, marking the German composer’s 250th anniversary.
Negruțiu has commissioned and premiered new music, most recently performing and recording the world premières of Robert Chumbley’s “Five Bagatelles” and Zack Stanton’s “Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble.” His new album, featuring piano bagatelles by Beethoven, Alexander Tcherepnin, Carl Vine, and Chumbley, will be released by Centaur Records in 2021, while his recent collaboration with Victor Brown Endowed Chair in Violin and Associate Professor of Violin Akemi Takayama, M.M. on the album “Carl Roskott: Works for Violin” (Centaur Records, 2018) has garnered rave reviews, including a Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement by Global Music Awards.
As an artist, teacher and scholar, Negruțiu embraces the exploration of rare piano literature, along with the advancement of arts entrepreneurship in higher education. He holds degrees from Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia (D.M.A.), the Royal Irish Academy of Music and Dublin City University in Ireland (M.Mus.) and the Romanian National University of Music in Bucharest (B.Mus.). Prior to this appointment at Millikin University School of Music, he taught at Shenandoah Conservatory and the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
