Cello
2021+
Dr Adrian Mantu is the cellist/founder of the ConTempo Quartet, quartet in residence at the Royal Academy of Music London 1999-2002, Galway Ensemble in Residence since 2003 and RTÉ ensemble in residence, Ireland between 2015 and 2019.
Since 2019, he has been principal cellist with the Wexford Opera Orchestra of Ireland and Luminosa Orchestra. In the past, he hold co-principal cello positions with Philharmonie der Nationen, Hamburg, Germany and National Orchestra of Romania, Bucharest. Adrian has been invited to perform as lead cellist with Irish National Opera, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Vespera orchestra as well as other European chamber and symphony orchestras.
As a soloist, Adrian has performed with National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Luminosa Orchestra, Dublin Orchestral Players, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Romanian National Orchestras of Bucharest, Brasov, Bacau, Oradea, Timisoara, Craiova, Constanta, Satu-Mare, Sibiu, Ramnicu-Valcea, Aachen Orchestra Germany and Bulgarian National Orchestra Sofia.
Adrian has studied cello and chamber music with Radu Aldulescu, Laurence Lesser, Zara Nelsova, Marin Cazacu, David Takeno and members of Quartetto Italiano and Hagen, Alban Berg, Amadeus and Emerson Quartets at Royal Academy of Music London, National University of Music Bucharest, Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sophia Madrid and Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada.
Adrian holds a Doctorate in Music degree, awarded by University of Dublin/Trinity College Dublin.
As soloist and member of ConTempo quartet, Adrian has won 17 International Prizes in Cello and Chamber Music Competitions (London, Munich, Berlin, Prague, Bucharest, Firenze, Graz, Hamburg, Rome, Sofia). He has performed over 4000 concerts around the world in 46 countries, in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonic, Tel-Aviv Opera, Carnegie Hall NY, Gedai Hall Tokyo, Atheneum and Radio National Concert Halls Bucharest, Doha Concert Hall, and Dublin’s National Concert Hall.
He played, as soloist works for cello and orchestra of Ch. & Ph. E. Bach; Boccherini; Vivaldi; Haydn; Beethoven; Brahms; Schumann; Lalo; Saint-Saens; Elgar; Dvorak; Tchaikovsky; Ina Boyle; Piazzolla; L.Bernstein; Tan Dun; Gerald Barry and Eimer Noone.
Adrian had the honour to perform in front of great personalities, Michael D Higgins, Prince Charles, Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II, Nobel Prize winners and Hollywood stars and recorded the music for Steven Spielberg & Tom Hank’s “Band of Brothers”.
Adrian’s recordings have been released on Universal, Sony, Deutsch Schallplatten, Quartz, CMC, Lyric FM, NCM, Capstone, Toccata and Diatribe CD labels. His album ‘New Airs’ went straight to No 3 in the iTunes classic charts.
Adrian has composed and arranged music for ‘Trop Tard’ (selected for the Cannes Festival), ‘Band of Brothers’ (Steven Spielberg and Tom Hank’s) and various silent films and plays, as well as for Netflix, HBO, the BBC and RTÉ’ TV series.
Adrian is very active in cross-genre collaborations and projects both at home and abroad with classical, traditional and pop musicians, as well as actors, writers and dance companies performing equally on his baroque, modern and electric cellos.
In 2019 Adrian started a long term collaboration, part of CelloVision Project with accordionist Dermot Dunne and visual artist Mihai Cucu, performing in Ireland, Romania, UK, Belgium, Qatar and Italy while regularly recording and sharing artistic content for online audiences.
Adrian has also collaborated with pianists Denis Kozhukhin, Finghin Collins, Barry Douglas, Hugh Tinney, John O’Connor, and Michael McHale, clarinettist Emma Johnson, cellists Martin Lovett of the Amadeus quartet, Leonard Elschenbroich and Raphael Merlin, violists Diemut Poppen and Garth Knox, singers Ailish Tynan and Lenneke Ruiten, Vanburgh and Casals quartets.
Adrian has taught at every level, from primary and secondary to 3rd level, as well as PhD and post-doctorate students at RAM (London), RIAM (Dublin), Music Matters (Music Matters), Coole (School of Music), UG (Galway). Adrian has delivered international master-classes and Lectures around the world, in Japan, USA, Romania, Italy, Finland, UK, France, Germany, Spain as well as all over Ireland (Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Belfast, Derry, Sligo, Waterford, Dundalk, Maynooth, Wexford, Leitrim, Kilkenny, Tullamore, Donegal).
In the past 20 years, since moving to Ireland, Adrian had the chance to commission/ premier over 400 contemporary or neglected Irish works in several renowned festivals (Europalia, NewMusic Dublin, Wigmore Hall:Irish Culture in Britain, Carnegie Hall:New Music New Ireland) and represented Ireland in the EU Project: “New Music/New Audiences”In recognition of their immense cultural contribution, Adrian and his colleagues from Contempo quartet were conferred as Doctors in Music, Honoris Causa, by National University of Ireland, Galway, and in January 2022 were awarded the distinction of Cultural Merit, in the Order of Knighthood, by the President of Romania.