Romanian cellist Andrei Ionita performed a concert at the LSU School of Music Recital Hall on Jan. 14. This concert was free to the public and featured Ionita performing solo works by composers Johann Sebastian Bach and Gaspar Cassadó.

“My mom told me that I, even at one, that I would sing along to the lullabies she would sing me,” Ionita said. “She used to go to choir rehearsals, and I started with piano when I was five. Three years later, it was the idea of my piano teacher, she made me study a string instrument. And for cello, you need a little bit bigger hands, and that was the right moment to start cello. I fell in love with it from the very first moment.” 

The concert was divided into two parts with an intermission in between. The first half of the program featured Ionita on stage as a solo performer. During this portion of the show, he performed the six movement “Suite No. 2 for cello solo in D minor” by Bach and the three movement “Suite for cello solo” by Cassadó. During this portion of the concert, Ionita used no sheet music. Ionita was rarely inanimate in his show, constantly swaying in his seat and displaying a range of facial expressions.

After the brief intermission, Ionita was joined on stage by the LOGOS String Quartet at LSU, which featured Roxana Pavel and Espen Lilleslåtten on violin, Elias Goldstein on viola and Dennis Parker on the cello. The Quartet and Ionita performed the “Quintet for 2 violons, 2 cellos, and viola, op. 163” by Franz Schubert. This piece featured four movements, and unlike the first two pieces that were performed with just one performer, this piece and all of its movements never had simply one musician as the star. All the pieces complemented each other and would go back and forth between melody and harmony with ease.

After the performance, Ionita had a CD sign and giveaway in the School of Music building lobby.

Ionita said he enjoyed all the pieces he played and did not have a favorite.

“Bach and Schubert’s music are really divine, and have been inspired by a higher power,” Ionita said. “Cassadó on the other hand is very virtuosic and is so much fun to play so, I really love all of them.”