Ioana Petcu-Colan facts for kids

Ioana Petcu-Colan is an amazing Irish violinist. She was born in Ireland but has Romanian roots. Today, she lives in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland.

About Ioana Petcu-Colan

Ioana Petcu-Colan was born in January 1978 in Cork, Ireland. Her parents, Adrian Petcu and Ruxandra Colan-Petcu, were both musicians. This meant music was a big part of her life from the start!

Ioana started learning the violin with her dad. When she was 16, she won a top prize at a music school in France called the Conservatoire de Nantes. She then went to the United Kingdom to study at the Royal Academy of Music. There, she earned a special degree called a Bachelor of Music with top honors. Later, she came back to Ireland and got a Master of Arts degree from the Cork School of Music. She learned from many famous musicians, like Hermann Krebbers and Lydia Mordkovitch.

Ioana Petcu-Colan is a very talented violinist. Since 2010, she has been an Associate Leader of the Ulster Orchestra. This means she helps lead the violin section of the orchestra. She plays a special Italian violin made by Goffredo Cappa way back in 1695!

As a soloist, Ioana has played many famous violin concertos. A concerto is a piece of music for a solo instrument and an orchestra. She has performed works by composers like Antonio Vivaldi, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Jean Sibelius. She has played under the direction of many conductors, including William Eddins and Robert Houlihan. She also played a new piece called "Elastic Harmonic" by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy on Irish TV for the very first time.

Playing in Groups (Chamber Music)

Ioana Petcu-Colan also loves playing chamber music. This is music played by a small group of musicians, often without a conductor. She helped start a group called the Callino String Quartet. A string quartet has two violins, a viola, and a cello. This group first played together at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in 1999.

As a chamber musician, she has performed in famous places like London's Wigmore Hall and Dublin's National Concert Hall. She has also played at many international music festivals around the world.

Ioana has a successful duo with another violinist named Elizabeth Cooney. They play special violin pieces that are not often heard. They explore music from different time periods, from old baroque music to modern pieces. They play works by composers like Darius Milhaud and Béla Bartók. They also perform pieces for two violins and a piano by composers like Johann Sebastian Bach and César Franck.

She has played all of Beethoven's Piano and Violin Sonatas with a piano partner. She used to be a member of the Irish Chamber Orchestra and is now part of a group called the Ensemble Avalon.

New Music and Education

Ioana Petcu-Colan is very interested in sharing new music with people. A composer named Ronan Guilfoyle wrote a special piece for her called "Ferdinand the Bull." It's for violin and a narrator (someone who tells a story). She also performed the very first public performance of Guilfoyle's Violin and Piano Sonata No. 2 with Izumi Kumura.

Ioana has also helped create a book of easy solo violin pieces by famous modern composers like Arvo Pärt and Ennio Morricone. This book is made for younger players and those who are new to modern music.

Personal Life

Ioana Petcu-Colan is married to a trombonist, who plays the trombone. They have two young daughters.]