Dinu Ghezzo or Interculturality as a Vocation

Dinu Ghezzo was Professor Emeritus at NYU, at the Steinhardt School of Culture and Human Development, the Department of Music and Performing Arts. D. Ghezzo studied composition, conducting, and theory of music at the Romanian Conservatory in Bucharest, obtained a PhD in composition and technology at UCLA (1973). He was founder and co-founder of Assisi International Music days, Gubbio festival, CIPAM festival in Montevarchi, Constanta International Music Days, and the Week of Romanian-American Music in Oradea. He was a recipient of an honorary doctorate from Ovidius University Constanta (Romania) and of many other awards, prizes, residencies and commissions including: Fulbright Senior Scholar (2006) visiting composer at the American Academy in Rome, Composer in Residence at Dresden Festival, and Guest Composer at the Berlin Hochschule der Kunste. He promoted the dialogue among American and Romanian composers, professors, artists, and poets belonging to all generations. He did this as part of his activity at NYU, as director of studies in composition, and also as director of the American New Music Consortiun and ICIA (International Composers and Interactive Artists). He also contributed to a change in of mentality, providing new music opportunities for young Romanian musicians and audiences in accordance with the spirit of the cosmopolitan “village” as open culture in the Romanian institutional context during the process of post-communist transition.