Biography
Romanian violinist Maria Gîlicel is an emerging performer recognized for her versatility and passion on stage.
Born in 1995, she started her violin and music studies at the age of 4 learning with her parents. She acquired her professional music degree at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música ‘Adolfo Salazar’ in Madrid under Professor Farid Fasla, before moving to London. Maria has recently graduated with a First Class Honours degree at the Royal College of Music where she will continue her Masters in Performance studies with Professor Maciej Rakowski and where she also worked with Professor Ani Schnarch.
She has had the chance to play for acclaimed musicians Nicola Benedetti, Alina Ibragimova, Leonid Kerbel, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Peter Schuhmayer, Vera Rodríguez Mehner, Mari Tampere-Bezrodny and Mariana Sîrbu.
Maria started performing at an early age, approaching every performance opportunity with immeasurable enthusiasm. She made her debut at the National Auditorium (Madrid) performing Sarasate’s ‘Carmen Fantasy’ and has performed at many venues, including Wigmore Hall, Buckingham Palace, Royal Festival Hall, Museo Sartorio (Trieste, Italy), Casa Tartini (Slovenia) and the Romanian Cultural Institute. She has also been getting involved with contemporary music performances as part of the Contemporary Music in Action module at the RCM and premiered Bertram Wee’s piece ‘Lionheart’ for the ‘Fruit for the Apocalypse’ Emerging Artists Programme in collaboration with art students from the Central Saint Martins.
She is an avid chamber musician and founder of the Thaleia String Quartet and has enjoyed working with Christoph Richter, Pavel Fisher, Nicholas Jones and the Carducci Quartet in Manchester as part of the Wigmore Hall Learning project for string quartets. They receive regular coaching from the Head of Strings of the Royal College of Music, Mark Messenger. The Thaleia Quartet also enjoyed performing Britten’s Third String Quartet at the 90th birthday concert for Martin Lovett, a member of the Amadeus Quartet for whom the Third Quartet was written.
Maria has received a major scholarship from the Royal College of Music to continue her Masters of Performance studies, which she will start in September of this year. She also received a Henry Wood award and receives support from the Stephen Bell Trust. Previously she was awarded the prize for Outstanding Musician following her Professional Degree Final Recital and Competition of the Community of Madrid.
She plays on a Paolo Antonio Testore violin (Milano, 1731) kindly loaned from the Royal College of Music.
In her free time, Maria loves painting, reading and spending as much time as possible in nature!
