Ghenadie Rotari

Accordionist Ghenadie Rotari, hailed as “a magnificent of the accordion, a true revelation” (Formula AS) was born in Moldova and has performed across Europe, North America and Asia in venues such as the Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, St. Martin in the Fields, Vienna Konzerthaus and others.

Future engagements include a concert with Ensemble MusikFabrik, the performance of a new work by Daniela Terranova in Novara, a piano and accordion duo recital at Festival Meridian in Bucharest, as well as a special concert for the "Nei suoni dei luoghi festival" in total darkness (in collaboration with the Rittmeyer Institute for the Blind) among others.

Ghenadie Rotari has been frequently invited to perform, both as a soloist and a chamber musician, in festivals like Wien modern, Essen Now!, Innersound New Arts Festival in Bucharest, Nei suoni dei luoghi Festival and others. He is the recipient of first prizes and various awards in international music competitions, most notably the first prize at the “Svirel” competition in Slovenia and the “Sony Classical Talent Scout award”.

Originally encouraged to take up the piano, a lack of free spaces in the class made him become an accordionist, it ended up being a fortunate twist of fate. Ghenadie Rotari continued his studies at the Conservatory of Trieste in Italy, Sibelius Academy in Finland and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, graduating in accordion performance and contemporary music studies.

His interest for contemporary music, as a means of expression, drew him to collaborate with many prominent composers and ensembles. Among the composers with whom Ghenadie Rotari collaborated are Rebecca Saunders, Chaya Czernowin, Mark Andre, Matthew Shlomowitz and others. Ghenadie Rotari has frequently appeared in performances with Ensemble PHACE, Ensemble Oktopus, Webern Kammerphilharmonie, Ensemble MusikFabrik, Augsburger Philharmoniker, among others.

Ghenadie has collaborated frequently with the Theaterakademie August Everding and Prinzregententheater in Munich, Teatro Regio in Torino and Kabinetttheater in Vienna, premiering new and experimental theatrical works. He has also recently performed in the production of Luciano Berio's "Twice upon..." in collaboration with the Ensemble MusikFabrik and the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Essen Philharmonic in the role of a wandering street musician. During the Covid-19 pandemic Ghenadie has initiated a project on Instagram called the “Quarantine diaries” which consists of newly commissioned short pieces depicting the composers’ vision of the pandemic.

Ghenadie Rotari has released an album, “Elegia”, entirely dedicated to new accordion music and published by Elektramusic. He has also appeared on radio and television programmes: ORF, Radio Ars, BR-Klassik, Radio Vaticana, Radio Belgrade, Moldova1. He was also a finalist of the Romania got talent show, seen live by millions of viewers. His recordings gained thousands of streams on all the major platforms, including Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music and more.

Ghenadie Rotari is the creator and the host of the “Everything Accordion” podcast, which has gained thousands of streams across more than 20 episodes and is currently teaching accordion at the Musikschule Montafon in Austria.