Cornelia Zambila

Cornelia was born in Bucharest (1988) and started to show interest for playing the violin at a very early age, inspired by her parents' love for music. After a few introductory lessons, she enrolled at the “George Enescu” Music Lyceum where she developed as a a musician, appearing on stage for chamber recitals, competitions or radio broadcasts as a violinist, pianist, but also viola player, attending various masterclasses (Yuri Bashmet, Kim Kashkashian - viola, Dan Dediu - composition). In 2007, after graduating with a thesis on the Phenomenology of the Tragic in Beethoven's Last Sonata Forms, she chose to continue her studies at the Bucharest National University of Music, at the Compostition department (with Doina Rotaru), Orchestra Conducting (Dumitru Goia) and Music Interpretation department- Violin. During these years she continued her piano studies and also followed a Baroque music module (harpsichord, basso continuo).
While spending her 3rd year as an Erasmus student at the Ghent Royal Conservatoire, Cornelia also had the opportunity to try instruments and/or techniques from different music cultures (Indian, African, Australian), and discovered her interest for ritual music.
In 2011 Cornelia graduated in Bucharest (with a thesis on Sound and Silence in the Music of Anton Webern), and she enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague to study in the Joint Master for New Audiences and Innovative Practices, while also studying violin with Vera Beths. As part of the program, she spent a short exchange period in Iceland, at the Reykjavik Academy of Music, working on electronic and contemporary music projects, but also as workshop leader in various improvisation camps projects.
Cornelia is trying to find new ways of reaching audiences through testing different forms of concert “rituals”, for which an important part of inspiration are archaic cultures and folklore.
Since the summer of 2012, an alternative center for organizing creative concerts and workshops was founded – ThemisArte, which is aimes at reaching different target groups through research on audiences response. ThemisArte started recently with a creative music camp for children - KOGAION (Busteni), a minifestival in Bucharest, various concept concerts.