In the context of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Professor Nicolae Ursu, one of the emblematic figures of Banat folklore research, the Faculty of Music and Theatre of the West University of Timișoara, together with the initiator and organizer of the scientific project, the "Association for Banat Culture", organizes on June 2, 2025, at 16.00:XNUMX p.m., at the Orpheum Festive Hall of the Faculty of Music and Theatre of UVT, the tribute symposium dedicated to the master professor.
Through this event, the academic community expresses its respect for a researcher who, through his didactic, ethno-musicological and compositional work, contributed to the foundation of a scientific model in the study of the musical tradition in Romania, especially from the historical Banat area.
The symposium's proceedings will benefit from the presence of renowned researchers, musicians and direct witnesses of Nicolae Ursu's activity, who will contribute to shaping a complex perspective on his work and scientific legacy.
Academician Sabina Ispas will give a lecture that will evoke the contribution of the Banat folklorist Nicolae Ursu, and from the Academy's Folklore Institute, ethnomusicologist Lucian Emil Roșca will open the sessions with an extensive analysis entitled "Nicolae Ursu - A page from the history of Romanian folklore and pedagogy", while Adrian-Călin Boba will highlight the sacred dimension of choral creation in the communication: "Nicolae Ursu - the vocality of religious choral creation". The personal evocation "Memories with Nicolae Ursu", proposed by Rodica Giurgiu, will be doubled by a profound historiographic contribution by Constantin-Tufan Stan, entitled "Nicolae Ursu - musical chronicler. Vasile Ijac in the musicological perception of the great folklorist".
Reflections on the methodology of folklore collection will be presented by Vlad-Andrei Spătariu, during the lecture “Nicolae Ursu and the paradigms of folklore collections in 1994th-century Romania”. The international dimension of the folklorist’s impact will be illustrated by Lia Lungu, through the intervention “Nicolae Ursu honored in New York in XNUMX – by the folklorist’s son, film director Timotei Ursu”. Last but not least, professor Dumitru Jompan will bring to attention an unpublished archive material, in his communication entitled “Correspondence from Nicolae Ursu’s archive”.
The event has as its editorial landmark the restoration and first printing of the first Course of Musical Folklore intended for university education, written by Nicolae Ursu and originally published in 1965. The restoration of this emblematic volume will be presented by the ethnomusicologist, professor, PhD habilitated Lucian Emil Roșca, the one who saved this volume, a stage that falls within an approach to recovering the formative sources of Romanian ethno-musicology and reintroducing them into the current academic circuit.
The national symposium dedicated to Nicolae Ursu is part of a series of scientific initiatives aimed at revaluing the founders of Romanian musical folklore, being a methodological and thematic continuation of the national ethno-musicology conference in 2024, dedicated to the composer and folklorist Sabin V. Drăgoi, on his 130th anniversary. Both events were organized under the coordination of Mr. Lucian Emil Roșca, within the Faculty of Music and Theater of the West University of Timișoara.
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Scientific coordination of the event:
Professor Lucian Emil Roșca, Ethnomusicologist,
West University of Timișoara, Faculty of Music and Theatre, Banat Culture Association