Artistic director of the Enescu Festival and Competition, conductor Cristian Macelaru, confessed on Saturday at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS) that he sees Romania as 'the most beautiful country in the world' and that his love for it grows even stronger each time he returns home.

'I'll tell you honestly, from a distance, Romania is the most beautiful country in the world. From a distance. But when I return, when I come home to Romania, I love it even more. Because there is a nostalgia, a beauty you notice from afar. It's exactly that kind of relationship you only appreciate when closeness is no longer there,' Cristian Macelaru remarked during a conference moderated by theater critic Octavian Saiu.

Macelaru spoke about the special relationship he has with music and the way it guides him during performances.

'I make music out of passion, and when I know we must go there and the music demands it, I don't look back. (...) And the orchestra feels this as if I'm taking them with me, because you need that wave, that genuine hurricane that sweeps you along,' the conductor explained.

According to him, vulnerability, sincerity and authenticity are essential for an artist, because the message delivered to the audience must reach 'from heart to heart'.

'As an artist you must become vulnerable, so that people can see exactly what is inside you, because it is a profound message, a direct message that must pass from heart to heart,' Macelaru said.

The conductor revealed that during every concert he lives a deep spiritual experience in which he feels close to loved ones who are no longer alive - his father and his mentors.

'In every concert I conduct, there is a moment when I enter a spiritual world, where I feel close to and one with all those who are no longer with me in life, but who are so real and so profound with me that ... I don't know, it's a completely different world. And for me, music is the way I enter that world. Maybe that's why I conduct much more than I should. (...) And I see the act of creating music as an infinite column of energy, to which each of us adds exactly what is needed for that column to live and grow ceaselessly. And entering that spiritual world connects me to that infinite column, which gives me energy but also creates perhaps the deepest freedom that can ever exist,' he explained.

Cristian Macelaru considers that conducting is more a philosophy of human connection than a mere technique.

'Conducting has less to do with technique and more to do with a philosophy and an understanding, a knowledge of what you must do in a relationship with people. (...) If you take a step forward and say 'I love these people', something happens. (...) The transformation is not in others, it is in you, because giving love first of all means beginning to love yourself - and that is the deepest thing in a relationship with people,' Macelaru said.

During the FITS dialogue, he also spoke about his beginnings in music. The tenth child in his family, Cristian first played the piano, then his father encouraged him to study the violin because he needed a violinist in the amateur orchestra he conducted. As a teenager, Macelaru began conducting and fell in love with it after arriving in the United States.

The special conference with Cristian Macelaru was attended by dozens of university professors from 40 countries who came to Sibiu to take part in the doctoral platform organised within FITS.

On Friday evening, the opening night of FITS, Macelaru conducted the Janoska Ensemble and the Romanian Youth Orchestra on the stage in Sibiu city's Grand Square, where thousands of people were present.

'I feel honoured to be at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival for the second time. (...) What happens every day, at every event of this festival - as it happens at the Enescu Festival - endures forever. And I am so glad to be part of this festival, which promotes what is most beautiful in the world. Because together we can create a beautiful world, despite existing problems. I believe we have the possibility, every day, to create something more beautiful than ourselves. Not so much for us today, but for a world that will come after us, perhaps even a new world,' Cristian Macelaru declared before the concert, at the festival's opening ceremony.

According to festival president Constantin Chiriac, FITS brings together, until June 29, more than 5,000 artists from 83 countries and will offer the public 848 events, eight more than at the previous edition.

National News Agency AGERPRES is a media partner of FITS. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Isabela Paulescu; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)

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