Bernice Chitiul

I made my earliest audio-video recording aged four; “O Mica Stea/A Little Star”, which was composed by my father, Florin Chitiul (pianist & composer). After this I began to experiment with songwriting and to study piano. I have always been interested in different genres of music and singing (e.g pop, soul and jazz). This led to various awards for voice quality and style in numerous singing competitions and festivals in Romania and abroad; most notably Romania’s National Selection of Eurovision Contest 2010, finishing in 5th place and Romanian X Factor 2012 in which I went through to the final live rounds. In 2011 I was awarded the $1000 “Margareta Paslaru” prize, at the “Mamaia Festival” I won 2nd Prize for Interpretation, and in 2013 I won 2nd prize at the “Mamaia Copiilor Festival” Composer Competition. More recently, in 2015, I was awarded 1st prize at the “Ealing Festival of Music, Dance, Speech and Drama”, the Solo Singing Trophy at the Godalming Festival, the Ann Lampard Award, the Geraldine Wensley Trophy for Opera, and the Festival Goblet for female voice. My earliest compositional drafts date back to when I was just seven and by the time I was 10, I already had several completed songs. I have applied my knowledge of music technology to my composition methods, employing programs such as Logic, Samplitude, Cubase and Ableton Pro. Improvisation is another forte of mine, which has in turn helped my playing and singing. The song “Letter to the Winter” (released in 2010 - being entitled the 1st 3D Stereoscopic anaglyph musical video clip in Europe) is most representative of me in my early stages of music. When I joined the Purcell School of Music in 2011, this opened doors to a more classical approach and I have been able to fully embrace classical music and classical singing. My first official classical concert at Wigmore Hall was on September 22nd 2013 where I performed four challenging Mozart Arias. This drew me closer to classical singing and confirmed that I have good potential. As a performer and as a leader of my chamber ensemble ‘Berliozya’, stage presence, image and vocal performance are the most important aspects for me when I perform. My aim is to transmit my message through music, dynamics and gestures to enhance my vocal performance. My goal is to build up my classical singing career through deepening my musical awareness, to further develop my vocal skills, act on stage, collaborate with musicians and finally to become an experienced performer, actor, composer and teacher with the additional possibility of exploring sound engineering. I am privately studying German, English, French, Italian and recently Czech in order to develop my language skills and to look at texts more critically. As a singer this allows me more access to a wide repertoire and to become a potential researcher in the performance field too.