Virgil Mihaiu
Virgil Mihaiu (born June 28, 1951 in Cluj, Romania) is a Romanian writer, jazz critic, diplomat, jazz aesthetics professor, polyglot, and performer. He was co-founder and the first director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Lisbon, and served as minister-counselor at the Romanian embassy in Portugal. Since 2015 he is director of the "Casa do Brasil" / Brazilian Cultural Centre, as well as the "Biblioteca de Estudios Latinoamericanos", both institutions functioning under the aegis of Cluj's principal University. Biography. Virgil Mihaiu is the son of Virgil, medical doctor (1915-2002), and Lucreția, music teacher (1925-2012 ); his brother, Horațiu Mihaiu (b. 1953) is architect, stage designer & theatre director. In 1974 Virgil Mihaiu graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Babeș-Bolyai University, after studying English and German, as well as Spanish and Portuguese. Between 1971 and 1983, he was on the editorial staff of "Echinox", a cultural magazine. In 1981, he became a member of the Writers' Union of Romania. Between 1983 and 1993, he was part of the editorial staff of "Jazz Forum", the International Jazz Federation's magazine in Warsaw. He joined the editorial staff of "Steaua", the cultural monthly of the Writers’ Union , in 1990. Mihaiu became an assistant professor at the "G. Dima" National Music Academy in Cluj in 1992. Five years later, he became a professor of Jazz Aesthetics of the jazz department at "G. Dima". In 2002 he received a "Magna cum laude" doctorate for his interdisciplinary research on F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 2006, he co-founded and became the first director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Lisbon, continuing in the post until 2012. He also served as minister-counselor at the Romanian embassy in Portugal Mihaiu is an honorary or full member of several organizations, including an honorary  member of the United States' Jazz Journalists Association (JJA), a member of the Romanian PEN Club, and an honorary member of the Czech-Romanian Cultural Association based in Prague. Since 1997, Mihaiu has been a part of the "Down Beat Jazz Critics Poll" and in 2001 he became the first Central-European ever to be included in the international editorial college of "Down Beat", a prominent jazz magazine edited in Chicago. In 2015 he was co-opted as a master professor at The Centre for Imagination Studies "Phantasma" within Cluj's "UBB" University. Since 2015 Mihaiu is director of the  Casa do Brasil / Brazilian Cultural Centre, as well as of the "Biblioteca de Estudios Latinoamericanos", both institutions functioning under the aegis of the "Babeș-Bolyai" University in Cluj. In over half a century of cultural activity, Mihaiu has marked several priorities: he is the author of the first volume of jazzology essays in Romanian ("Resonance Box", 1985); co-editor, together with producer Leo Feigin, of the first Romanian avant-garde jazz albums released in the West – performed by Harry Tavitian, Corneliu Stroe & the "Creativ" group – on London's Leo Records / 1985-86; founder of the first Jazz Aesthetics Course in  the Romanian academic system / at the "G. Dima" National Music Academy in Cluj, 1997; in 2001 he became the first jazzologist from Central and Eastern Europe to be co-opted in the international editorial college of "Down Beat", the global reference monthly published in Chicago. Mihaiu was involved, as co-founding director, in the development of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Lisbon. There he launched cultural diplomacy initiatives, such as: the establishment of the honorary title "Amicus Romaniae", meant to highlight the personalities from the Portuguese and international cultural-diplomatic sphere consistently involved in supporting the activities of the Romanian  Cultural Institute in Lisbon (2007); the "Romanian Music Season in Portugal", held between 2007-2012; "Romanian Cultural Summer" in Portugal; Romanian cinema galas in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Evora, Estoril, Ponta Delgada / Azores Islands, etc. Co-organizer, advisor, lecturer, moderator of the first Romanian edition of the "World Jazz Day" / April 30, 2013, Cluj; in 2015, at Mihaiu's initiative, for the first time a higher education institution in Romania – the National Music Academy in Cluj – awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to a jazzologist: John Edward Hasse from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; in 2017 and 2018, Mihaiu  was the first lecturer to give jazzology lectures at Monenegro's National Academy of Music in . Writing and lecturing. Mihaiu is a prolific author of poems, essays, criticism, and translations. He has been published in Romania's major cultural magazines as well as publications in Portugal, Poland, Great Britain, Germany, Latvia, Switzerland, Russia, Croatia, the United States, France, Brazil, Serbia, Austria, Italy, Norway, Spain, Moldova, Hungary, Costa Rica, Montenegro, Turkey, and Canada. Mihaiu has delivered Jazzology lectures at various universities and institutes, and participated as a guest in congresses and festivals (Sweden, Portugal, Romania, Croatia, Germany, England, Austria, Spain, Lithuania , Switzerland, Serbia, Scotland, the United States, France, Italy, Montenegro, Moldova, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, Ireland, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Cuba, Azerbaijan, Northern Macedonia). Between 2000 and 2005 he participated at the F. Scott Fitzgerald World Conferences. He has also given a series of lectures, recitals and documentation tours through universities and cultural institutions of the United States (New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, San Francisco, Stanford, Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, and Berkeley). Performing, media, visual arts. Mihaiu is co-founder of "Jazzographics", a loose-knit jazz and poetry outfit featuring different combinations of the following artists: He has performed his own poetry as  a solo act, or with the "Jazzographics", pianists , Dima Belinski, Lucian Ban, violinist Alexander Balanescu, percussionist Mario Florescu, flutist Marius Gagiu, saxophonist Alex Munte, dancer Fatma Mohamed, and the group Trigon. Mihaiu has performed his poetry in Ireland, Scotland, Romania, England, Austria, USA, Serbia, Germany, Northern Ireland, Hungary, France, Croatia, and at the Lisbon World Exhibition 1998. Between 1980-2004 Mihaiu produced his regular "Eseu Jazz" broadcast on Radio Cluj and CD Radio Napoca and the "Jazzorelief" broadcast on TVR Cluj. Published works. Anthologies. Virgil Mihaiu has had works included in the following poetry anthologies: