Eugene Albulescu is an award-winning performer who combines a blazing technique with the artistic integrity and originality to express musical emotions at their most personal level. His work as conductor, soloist and recording artist spans four continents and over four decades. At age 12 Albulescu won First prize in Romania’s National Music Competition, and at 16 he was the youngest competitor and winner of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Young Musicians Competition. His emergence on the international scene came in 1994, when his debut recording (Albulescu Plays Liszt, MANU1446) earned him the Grand Prix du Disque Liszt, awarded for the best Liszt recording of the year, adding Albulescu’s name to that of legendary recipients such as Horowitz and Brendel. Noted New York Times critic Harold Schonberg praised Albulescu for his “infallible fingers of steel,” declaring that “nothing, anywhere, has any terrors for him.” His performances in New York at BargeMusic in 1996 attracted the attention of WNYC, which broadcast Albulescu’s Hammerklavier interpretation live; he later gave his Carnegie Hall debut in the Stern Auditorium in 2001 performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

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Since then, Albulescu has worked as conductor and soloist with numerous major orchestras including the New Zealand Symphony, the Romanian National George Enescu Philharmonic, the New York Chamber Orchestra, the Manukau Symphony Orchestra, and Christchurch Symphony. He toured the US with the Barbizon Chamber Orchestra and later led two US tours as music director with the French Chamber Orchestra. His recordings have been released on Ode/Manu label, Ode/BMG, Trust, Downstage Recordings, and on the Naxos label with the New Zealand Symphony featuring the “Rock Concerto,” composed for Albulescu by celebrated New Zealand composer Jenny McLeod. Mr. Albulescu has also recorded solo piano sessions for South African Broadcasting Corporation, as well as Radio New Zealand, and in the US has been a featured artist on NPR’s Performance Today. His most recent release on the AMP label, featuring performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos 1 and 5, has earned significant acclaim and unanimously positive critical reviews.

 

Albulescu’s outreach in over one hundred US high schools has been significant, and his program “Inside the Piano” linking technology and creativity earned him coverage from the major media, including articles in the Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as the cover of Clavier Magazine. Some of his notable performances include two invitations to perform at the White House in 1996 and 1999, as well as performing at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Albulescu has been awarded twice the Steinway Teacher of the Year Award in 2017 and 2022, and was inducted into the Steinway Teacher Hall of Fame in 2023.

 

Albulescu started his piano studies in Romania at age six, at the Enescu Music School in Bucharest. His family moved to New Zealand in 1984 to escape Romania’s Communist regime. He completed his musical studies with Edward Auer at Indiana University where, at nineteen, he was the youngest person ever to teach as an assistant instructor. A Steinway Artist since 2005, he currently is the Ulrich Professor of Music at Lehigh University.