Cecilia Burcescu

A Romanian Rhapsody Cecilia Burcescu

?Life is a great teacher, and I believe that the best lesson I have mastered from life is to see the glass as half full, and not half empty ? taken from life only the best, regardless of all the horror I have witnessed in my existence?..? Sergiu Comissiona
Maestro Sergiu Comissiona?s biography reveals facts about his happy childhood in a Jewish petit bourgeois family in Bucharest ? then, ?the little Paris of Eastern Europe?, his adolescence under the Nazi specter, and his youth in repressive communist times behind the Iron Curtain. His life changes from the closed horizons of communist Romania to the broad ones of the Western world when he immigrates to Israel, later settling in England, then Sweden and, finally, the United States. His career path, from an ensemble violinist to an internationally-renowned conductor, is followed chronologically and analytically, based on his own accounts, extended research, and revealing testimonials, the Maestro?s rationale of having his biography written was, in his own words, ?for the Westerners to understand my deep attachment to my Romanian roots, for the Romanians to know about my struggle for artistic affirmation in the Western world, and mostly for young conductors to realize that through passion, patience and persistence ? and by not committing suicide after the first failure ? the dedicated commitment to the profession bears fruit.?