Marcela Vuicu from Chisinau was awarded the Top Prize at the Laureate Gala of the third Festival of Ballads held by Radio Moldova. The young woman received a diploma and a prize of 10,000 lei from the Ministry of Culture, IPN reports.
“Exactly five years ago, UNESCO included the ballad in the tangible and intangible heritage because it was on the verge of extinction. We were entrusted with the task of preserving and promoting this value that no longer belongs only to us. We staged the third Festival of Ballads already and thus fulfilled the task of finding and protecting what was in danger,” said Alexandru Dorogan, director of Radio Moldova, who proposed organizing such a festival.
Attending the event, suspended Minister of Culture Monica Babuc said the ballad is the most complex genre of the national intangible heritage. “The ballad is not only about the pain and suffering of our people, but also about love, the feeling of revenge against those who attacked our homes and about our longing for going abroad and returning home,” she stated.
In the vocal soloists category, the first place was won by Natalia Turcanu from Chisinau and Olga Cazacu from Colibasi, Cahul. Marina Coptu from Parlita village of Ungheni district and Mariana Honceru from Ungureni of Romania’s Botosani County took the second place. The third place was occupied by Elena Rotaru-Gorbei from Piatra, Orhei and Nina Ovanesov from Ulmu, Ialoveni. As there were few competitors in the instrumental soloists category, there were awarded only two prizes, both for the third place – to trumpet players Alexei Ababii from Chioselia, Cahul and Ion Lupu from Soldanesti. There were also offered six special prizes.
Jury member Andrei Tamazlacaru, ethnomusicologist, founder and manager of the ensemble “Talancuta”, received the “Opera Omnia” Prize for rich research activity, the promotion of folklore and for substantial contribution to organizing the Festival of Ballads.
The festival was staged by Radio Moldova in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, the National Commission for UNESCO, the National Center for Conservation and Promotion of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the Institute of Cultural Heritage of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova with financial support from Sudzucker-Moldova, Edelweiss Foundation, the Congress of Azeri People from Moldova and collector Petru Costin, who founded the Museum of the Customs Service and the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History.
