Ioana Galu

Ioana Galu, a native of Romania, has enjoyed a national and international career in both Europe and the United States. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance from the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj, Romania, later joining the faculty as an assistant professor of violin and chamber music. After coming to the United States, she earned a second master’s degree in violin performance from Bowling Green State University and continued her studies at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, where she received an Artist Diploma. In 2012, Galu graduated with a doctorate in Contemporary Music from Bowling Green State University. Her most important teachers were Victoria Nicolae, Alexandru Gavrilovici, Vasile Beluska, Yim Won Bin and Penny Thompson Kruse. Galu has performed in masterclasses for the Voces String Quartet, the Amernet String Quartet, Duo Gelland, Alexandru Gavrilovici, David Erlich, Stefan Milenkovich, Trio Kadek, Jacques Saint-Yves, Devics Sandor, and Wolfram Just. In 2000, she earned a scholarship at the Academie National de Villecroze of France and studied with Diana Ligeti and Christian Ivaldi.

She has been awarded prizes in several national and international competitions, including Second Prize in the Mozart International Competition for Piano Trios (Romania), and First Prize and Special Prize of the SOROS Foundation at the George Enescu Violin National Competition (Romania). She also won Second Prize in the Starling Violin Competition College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati (CCM) and was the winner of the CCM Concerto Competition in February 2004. Galu has performed recitals in Romania, Budapest (Hungary), Düsseldorf (Germany), Lyon, Villecroze (France), Bowling Green, Toledo, Greensboro, Cincinnati and New York City. She has appeared as soloist with several orchestras in Romania and the United States, including the CCM Orchestra, Heidelberg University Orchestra, Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Livonia Symphony, Southern Great Lakes Symphony, Central Ohio Symphony, and the Perrysburg Symphony. Between 2006 and 2009 she served as the concertmaster of Central Ohio Symphony in Delaware, and was the concertmaster of the Southern Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra between 2010 and 2015.

From 2004-2016, Galu was on the faculty of the Heidelberg University Department of Music in Tiffin, Ohio and was the director of the Preparatory Department between 2005 and 2009. Between 2014-2016 Galu served on the faculty of The College of Wooster, Ohio. Galu has been on the faculty of Eastern Music Festival since 2004. In the summer of 2010, she co-founded the annual Romanian-American chamber music festival “American Musicians in Transylvania” in her hometown of Bistrita, Romania, with full support from the Society of Concerts – Bistrita. The festival brings together Romanian and American artists for chamber music concerts and masterclasses in different Transylvanian cities. In June 2013, Galu was selected to be a member of the board of directors of Music4Romania, an organization whose mission is to “make a difference through music by enhancing the conditions and educational opportunities in schools and orphanages in Romania and by promoting Romanian music and culture in the USA and internationally.” (Music4Romania.org). Galu is also a member of the board of directors of the Southern Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra.

In 2014 Galu performed the world premiere of Marilyn Shrude’s violin concerto Libro D’Ore with the Central Ohio Symphony and the European premiere with the Sibiu State Philharmonic in Romania. She gave the US premiere in October 2014, and subsequently recorded the concerto for Albany Records. In January 2015, Galu recorded “Music Under Political Unrest” – Works for Two Violins by Grażyna Bacewicz, Henryk Górecki, and Michał Spisak with Iuliana Cotirlea, violin, to be released in the near future. In December 2015, Galu premiered “Elegy for Peter” for viola solo, commissioned in memory of cellist Peter Kozma. In February 2017, she premiered “Unrest” for amplified violin, tape and percussion, commissioned and written for her by percussionist and composer Bridget Slone. The work expresses Galu’s personal reflections on the Romanian Revolution of 1989.