Ștefan Doniga

Ștefan Doniga is one of the most active Romanian musicians today, carrying out an extensive artistic activity, which covers a particularly wide spectrum, alongside his stage appearances, including the creation of musical illustrations for theater plays (he holds an award for stage music), technical opera direction, designing theater and ballet scenarios (creator of two shows included in the 2012-2103 and 2015-2016 seasons of the Bucharest Operetta Theatre), book translation and publication in the artistic field, artistic management, support of conferences and public communications.

Born in Galati in 1979, pianist Ştefan Doniga graduated from the National University of Music in Bucharest in 2002, during the 5 years of studies benefiting from the guidance of professors Viorica Rădoi, Oxana Corjos, Dan Grigore. Ştefan Doniga performed on stages in Romania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Moldova, Austria, Slovakia, Norway, Finland, South Korea, France, Poland, Italy, Mexico, Cuba, China, Great Britain, Morocco, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Spain.

His public appearances were represented by solo appearances or chamber partnerships with important artists of the Romanian music scene such as the cellist Marin Cazacu, the flutist Ion Bogdan Ştefănescu, the violinists Florin Croitoru, Diana Jipa, Rafael Butaru and Ştefan Horvath, the clarinetist Emil Vișenescu, the sopranos Irina Iordăchescu, Iulia Isaev, Sorina Munteanu, etc. 

In 2000, Ștefan Doniga represented Romania at the First Balkan Festival of Young Pianists in Razgrad, Bulgaria, where he received the Festival Medal and also participated in numerous direct broadcasts by the Romanian Broadcasting, being invited to produce special recordings with the National Radio Chamber Orchestra.

Ştefan Doniga is the only Romanian pianist who recorded the complete set of mazurkas for piano by Alexandr Skriabin – a live recording at the Romanian Athenaeum in 2005 and broadcasted repeatedly, through the European Radio Union, by the German radio station WDR 3 .

The Romanian artist recorded in the world premiere the concerts numbers 2 and 3 for piano and orchestra by Serghei Bortkiewicz, recordings produced by the Netherlands Institute for Music and performed together with the Symphony Orchestra of the Janacek Philharmonic in Ostrava, under the direction of conductor David Pocelijn. The disc was published by the Dutch label BRILLIANT CLASSICS and released worldwide on March 16, 2018. It received extremely favorable reviews from two of the most important music magazines in the world – “Gramophone” and “American Record Guide” and was named “May 2018 Record of the Month” by the online publication MusicWeb International.

Along with these two materials, the recording activity of Ştefan Doniga also includes:

• a CD dedicated to Dinu Lipatti’s compositional creation, which includes more than half of the repertoire as absolute premiere recordings (recording made in the MIHAIL JORA Concert Studio of the Romanian Broadcasting Society);
• a disc dedicated to Romanian female composers, also including three premiere creations (works by Carmen Petra Basacopol, Felicia Donceanu, Liana Alexandra, Hilda Jerea, Violeta DInescu, Laura Manolache) – recording made in the MIHAIL JORA Concert Studio of the Romanian Broadcasting Society;
• a compact disc dedicated to the composer from Timisoara Remus Georgescu, on which the complete version of the II Suite for piano appears for the first time alongside the version by the Russian pianist Dimitri Alexeev;
• a disc made together with the Slovak-Finnish quartet “Tangazzi” including works by Astor Piazzolla.

Together with the violinist Diana Jipa, the pianist Ștefan Doniga creates one of the most successful duos in current Romanian music, the ensemble supporting, between 2018 and 2025, over 500 concerts and recitals in over 30 countries on 6 continents and over 50 of cities in Romania.

These events took place within the framework of the national and international tours “A century of Romanian music”, “DACIKA”, “UNIREA orchestra connects the cities of the Unity”, “Romania Universalis”, “Intermeridian” editions I and II, “LIPATTI – the composer, premiere recordings”, “Ladies of Romanian music” and made over 100 online video productions in the series “LIVE CLASSIC”, “REDESCOPERĂ ROMÂNIA“, “INTERMERIDIAN Online”, “EMINESCIANA 2.0”, “Sunetul Formelor”, “Ladies music”, “Romania Europolis” – projects that totaled over 6,000,000 views on social media platforms.