DANIEL CIOBANU: GLASGOW IS RICHER FOR HIS INPUT

The musical events are starting up again for the winter season.  This chap, Daniel Ciobanu, has to be the crème de la crème.

He was playing a mid-day concert in the city centre in a very fine setting for a small concert - the Merchant House, George Square, Glasgow.

He is from Romania and came to Scotland on a scholarship for one year to study at Stewart's Melville College in Edinburgh.  Then in 2010 he started at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.

That is why, over the last few years, we have seen him in concerts large or small, including competitions. His website

http://www.danielpetricaciobanu.com/

shows how he is booked 'way into the future to play in major concert halls (as well small venues) all over the world! (He also played in Pollock House Sunday night. He had to rush off to catch a plane to Dubai then on to ??? in eastern Asia to stand in at the last minute for a concert pianist.)

I notice he is Artistic Director of the Neamt International Music Fest 

www.neamtpianofestival.ro

which is where is from i.e. Piatra Neamt, Romania  (above)' 

His website shows that next week on October 18th he is scheduled to give a debut performance at Carnegie Hall in New York.

We are so lucky to be able to enjoy him in our part of the world!

* * * * * *   off-at-a-tangent    * * * * * *

On the subject of Glasgow being richer for its citizens' input ....

I always enjoy concerts in this particular building because every time I climb the stairs from the street outside to the second floor I pass this sculpture in the stairwell. 

Kirkman Finlay

 A marble statue by John Gibson (1790–1866) is in the vestibule of the Merchants' House on George Square.

Kirkman Finlay (1773 – 1842) [was a Glasgow Merchant] who made strenuous efforts to capture lucrative Asian markets, successfully challenging the supremacy of the British East India Company in trade with India and the Far East. Under his leadership the business expanded, moving into cotton manufacturing with the purchase of the Ballindalloch Works in 1798, the Catrine Mills in 1801 and the Deanston Mills in 1806.

They became the largest textile concern in Scotland and the first British merchant to trade directly with India (1816).  

[Wikipedia] 

His knowledge of banking was considerable. He was an extraordinary director of The Royal Bank of Scotland;  he agitated for the retention of the Scottish one pound note in 1826.   His  financial success shows … the central importance of cotton textiles in Glasgow's domestic economy …. [He was one of many] who helped to make Glasgow.

He and others like him made loadsa money in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution.  These merchants put money aside for the poor and other worthy causes and the room in which the concert is held has many gold painted dark wooden boards noting them and their contributions.  

Iheir website [www.merchantshouse.org] states "From the beginning, the Merchants House supported members and their families who had become 'decayed and distressed', both within their hospital and outside it. 

The Merchants House is now a major charitable institution and donations of more than £700,000 are awarded each year to deserving charities and individuals in Glasgow and beyond. 

For over four hundred years after its foundation, it is part of the fabric of Glasgow and the city is richer for it."