Acclaimed musicologist and pianist Valentina Sandu-Dediu was born on November 27, 1966, in Bucharest. She is presently a professor at the Department of Musicology and Education at the National University of Music Bucharest (NUMB), and has been a Permanent Fellow at the New Europe College, Bucharest, since 2010.

Since 2010, she has been Founder and Director of the online magazine Musicology Today, as well as Coordinator of the program Black Sea Link at the New Europe College. She has published a number of books, including Stylistic and Symbolic Hypostases of Mannerism in Music (Bucharest, Editura Muzicala, 1997, for which she won The Prize of the Romanian Academy), New Music between Modern and Postmodern (Bucharest, Editura Muzicala 2004), Rumänische Musik nach 1944 (Saarbrücken, Pfau, 2006), Ludwig van Beethoven (Bucharest, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 2008), Choice, Affect, Attitude. Style and Rhetoric in Music (Bucharest, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 2010, for which she won The Prize of the Romanian Union of Composers and Musicologists), and Robert Schumann (Bucharest, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 2011).

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in musicology (1990) and a PhD (1995) at the National University of Music Bucharest, she was granted postdoctoral scholarships at the New Europe College, Bucharest (1996–97), and at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (“Andrew Mellon,” 2000). Since 1993, she has taught courses in history of 20th-century music, musicology, stylistics, and theories of musical performance. In 2005 she became a doctoral advisor at NUMB. Sandu-Dediu has also taught during the International summer classes in Cisnădie, Icon Arts (2007–11).

Sandu-Dediu is also a featured pianist on several recordings of chamber music.

Made possible by support from the
William E. Valente Endowment in Music.