Faculty

Profile

Cristina Stanescu was born in Craiova Romania where she begun piano studies at the age of 6. She has appeared both as a soloist and as a collaborative pianist in concerts throughout Eastern Europe and the United States.

As a vocal coach and recitalist, she has worked with such artists as Stephanie Blythe, Anthony Griffey, Stephanie Houtzel, Angelika Kirchschlager, Bejun Mehta, Anna Moffo, Teresa Santiago, Randal Scartlata, Carlo Scibelli, Renata Scotto, Lucy Shelton, Veronica Villaroel, Jon Villars and Rachel Watkins;

instrumentalists such as David Eggar, Steven Gosling, David Gresham, Gil Morgenstern, Hai-Ye Ni,  Patricia Sunwoo;  conductors such as Louis Langrée, Gerard Schwartz, Kurt Masur and Sir Neville Marriner; directors such as Colin Graham, Jonathan Miller and Peter Sellars.

A passionate teacher of art song as well as opera, Ms. Stanescu has taught at Yale University, New York University, and the Bucharest Academy of Music (Romania). Presently, she is on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music. She is the founding director of the Collaborative Piano Program at Mannes, which produced students now active in the collaborative field at the Metropolitan Opera and on Broadway.

She has had professional affiliations with the New York Philharmonic, the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Renata Scotto Opera Academy, Juilliard Opera Center, and was an assistant conductor for seven years with the Lyric Theatre of Craiova.

Ms. Stanescu holds a Masters degree and Doctorate in Accompaniment from the Juilliard School, with a dissertation entitled Preparing the role of Oedipe in the opera Oedipe by George Enescu; a vocal coach's work. She also holds a Masters degree in Piano performance from the Bucharest Academy of Music (Romania).