The Enescu Competition, Inbal Segev, and the Acoustics of Survival

I first realized that Romania is free of both antisemitism and “anti-Israelism” back in September, at the George Enescu Festival—remember my rapturous sighs? Once again, Bucharest has convinced me: the world is not hostile.
At least the musical world, by itself, is not.

While in Israel we are learning to live in the jagged rhythm of sirens, Bucharest is preparing for the 20th, anniversary edition of the International Enescu Competition. Its motto—“In Pursuit of Excellence”—sounds almost audacious, as if daring entropy. Yet its artistic director, the exceptional conductor Cristian Măcelaru, has taken an even bolder step: he invited the Israeli cellist Inbal Segev to join the jury.

A wunderkind who performed for the President of Israel at eight, and at eighteen made her debut with both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta (patron of the Enescu competition and festival), Segev became another Israeli musician whose career in the United States was shaped with the help of Isaac Stern. Today she is celebrated worldwide, living in New York surrounded by her children and two cellos—one by the noble Francesco Rugeri (1673), the other by the austere Karl Becker (1958). In this pairing of old Europe and postwar rationalism, her essence seems to reside: European rigor, washed in American freedom.

Anna Clyne writes music for her; she composes as well, and records masterclasses in her series Musings with Inbal Segev, nurturing a generation for whom sound is not just technique, but a way to survive. At the same time, she has never renounced her Israeli citizenship, and consistently lists her country of birth on every program—unlike others, sadly familiar to us.

                       Inbal Segev. Photo by @ Bri Elledge

In the context of Enescu, inviting an Israeli musician to the jury is, of course, not a political gesture. It is the natural breath of a culture that refuses to acknowledge the borders erected by barbarism.

Israeli musicians have been connected to the Enescu Competition for decades. In 1961, Arie Vardi received second prize here—later becoming the long-standing chairman of the jury at our Rubinstein Competition. In 2003, the Israeli violinist Nurit Stark took third prize. In 2011, the bronze medal went to cellist Michal Korman, and in 2022 the competition was won by pianist Alexandra Segal (an Israeli born in Ukraine).

Today, our distances are measured not in kilometers, but in the time it takes to reach the nearest shelter. Life has acquired a new acoustics—sharp, extreme, stripped of overtones. Against this backdrop, news from Bucharest arrives like a message from a gentler, parallel reality. And it sounds like confirmation: we have not been written out.

Sometimes that quiet certainty is enough to carry one through to dawn. It is already more than hope; it is a return to a human scale. A sign that the thread of culture—true culture—does not break, even when everything else is coming apart at the seams.

The George Enescu International Competition is an event held under the High Patronage of the President of Romania. A cultural project funded by the Romanian Government through the Ministry of Culture. Organizer: ARTEXIM. Co-organizer: ArtProduction Foundation

www.festivalenescu.ro/en/