"Mr. Cantea exhibited a luminous touch and delicate phrasing [...], with emotions reaching paroxysmal heights in search for Divinity in serene concentration.” - Cătălin Sava, concert review
Dragoș Andrei Cantea is an artistic result of the Iași school of music, with Ioana Stănescu as a mentor between 1999 - 2017. This professional partnership concluded in the main formation of the artistic personality of today's young pianist.
Dragoș is a collaborator of some of the top philharmonics in Romania, having also performed in recitals or with orchestras in the UK, USA, Canada, Finland, Norway, Austria, Germany, Italy or Romania. He collaborated along the years with conductors such as Radu Popa, Ovidiu Balan, Ștefan Novak, Fergus MacAlpine, Pawel Kapuła, Mihnea Ignat or world renowned maestros such as Cristian Mandeal.
He is a triple graduate of the George Enescu National University of Arts (UNAGE) in Iași, at the Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral levels, under the tutelage of Ioana Stănescu and Dan Prelipcean. Later on, he became an alumni soloist of the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, at the classes of Håvard Gimse and Kathryn Stott, graduating with the project "Nationalism in music - an artistic-diplomatic tool for mutual understanding of common values".
Since 2019, he has been an invited lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Finland, working interdisciplinary teaching piano, chamber music and creative entrepreneurship. He was also invited as a member of the jury of the Quatre Music Youth Piano Competition in Singapore in 2021 and he is often engaged in teaching masterclasses around Europe.
As a chamber musician, he performed in previous seasons with cellists Filip Papa and Wen-Sinn Yang and violinists Bjarne Magnus Jensen and Hyeyoon Park.
Dragoș is also a beneficiary of several scholarships such as Roche Continents 2018, Act in Art 2019, or the Rising Leaders programme of the United States Embassy in Norway.
Currently, Dragoș carries out a strong artistic activity as a concert pianist and lecturer. At the same time, he is the coordinator of several interdisciplinary international projects under the auspices of the Norwegian Arts Council and the co-founder and artistic director of the Classix Festival.