Cornel Taranu
b. 1934
Romanian
Biography
Distinguished Romanian composer Cornel Taranu was born on June 20th 1934 in Cluj. He studied composition at the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca with Sigismund Toduta. From 1966-67 he studied musical analysis with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory before attending Darmstadt from 1968-89 and 1972 in order to study analysis with György Ligeti, conducting with Bruno Maderna and percussion with Christoph Caskel. He has received many honours including the Great Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit (Romania, 2004), five prizes from the Romanian Composers’ Union (1972, 1978, 1981, 1982, 2001) and the Prize of the Academy of the SR of Romania (1973). He was also named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2002. Taranu continues to compose today, but primarily teaches and lectures in Romania, Germany, Israel, Switzerland and the USA.