{"id":421,"date":"2026-03-30T20:56:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/popean.com\/?page_id=421"},"modified":"2026-04-05T22:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:32:33","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/popean.com\/?page_id=421","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Award-winning\u00a0composer<\/a> Mihai Popean received degrees from\u00a0Bowling Green State University<\/a>\u00a0of Ohio, USA (DMA and MM), and\u00a0West University of Timisoara<\/a>, Romania (BM). His teachers include Doctor Honoris Causa Distinguished Artist Professor\u00a0Marilyn Shrude<\/a>,\u00a0Mikel Kuehn<\/a>,\u00a0Elainie Lillios<\/a>, Doctor Honoris Causa\u00a0Remus Georgescu<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Constantin R\u00eep\u0103<\/a>, Professor Emeritus\u00a0Vasile Beluska<\/a>\u00a0(Violin), Professor Emeritus\u00a0Vernon Wolcott<\/a>\u00a0(organ), Ecaterina Bothar (viola) and\u00a0Russell Schmidt<\/a>\u00a0(jazz) as well as Distinguished Research Professor\u00a0 Verner Bingman<\/a>\u00a0and Professor Patricia Sharp (neuroscience\/music cognition).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mihai Popean is the first post-revolution Romanian composer to write, promote and give live concerts for wide audiences with electronic music\u00a0in non-conventional spaces\u00a0in Romania (first-ever electronic music concerts in the\u00a0Turda Saltmine<\/em>,\u00a0Tonitza Gallery<\/em>\u00a0within the National Museum of Art in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania Expo Tech Transfer Festival, etc.). His\u00a0works<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0performances<\/a>\u00a0encompass a wide range of musical genres, and have been featured\u00a0on TV and radio stations in Romania and the USA. In 2010 he was a co-producer for one episode (Star Formation) and composer of the original title song for the Emmy Award-winning\u00a0Plugged-In<\/em>\u00a0science show (WGTE Public Media<\/a>\u00a0Television, Toledo, Ohio, USA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Popean\u2019s works have received awards and performances (ATEM New Music Ensemble 2017, Detroit Symphony Concert Orchestra 2015, All-State Orchestra 2012-2015,\u00a0Alarm<\/a><\/em>\u00a0Will Sound<\/a><\/em>\u00a0reading of\u00a0Twittering Machine\u00a0<\/em>in 2012,\u00a0Toledo Symphony Youth Orchestra<\/a>\u00a0commission 2010, winner of the Bowling Green State University Concerto Competition 2008, 1st Prize for The University of Toledo Craig\u2019s Piano Competition 2007,\u00a0Maximilian Kolbe<\/em>\u00a0Theater Play original soundtrack commission for the\u00a02001\u00a0Colloque Internationale Ionesco\u00a0apr\u00e8s\u00a0Ionesco<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, the Grand Prize of The Metal Fan Gala 1992) and were featured in Contemporary Music Festivals such as\u00a0TIMSONIA\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(2018),\u00a0INTRADA \u2013 Remus Georgescu\u00a0<\/em>(2018),\u00a0MUSICAL TIMISOARA\u00a0<\/em>(2018),\u00a0Ohio Northern University<\/a>\u00a0(2008),\u00a0Heidelberg University<\/a>\u00a0(2007) and the\u00a0University of Toledo<\/a>\u00a0(2007).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other honors include CMA Distinguished Document\/Thesis Award<\/em> 2016, Teacher of the Year<\/em> 2006-2007, Educator of the Year<\/em> 2006, and several nominations for Who\u2019s Who Among American Teachers. During 2001-2006 he was the orchestra director and piano teacher at Eau Claire High School in Columbia, South Carolina. Research interests include the Tibetan Yang<\/em> musical notation based on research<\/a> completed at Rangjung Yeshe Institute<\/a> CBS from Kathmandu University<\/a> in Nepal (2015-2016) and transdisciplinary research in music composition, education, musicology, cognition, medicine and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently he is an Associate Professor Doctor Habilitatus at the Faculty of Music & Theatre<\/a> from the West University of Timisoara<\/a> (WUT) where he teaches music harmony, 20th-century music analysis, music technology, academic ethics and integrity, and the methodology of dissertation research and elaboration. He is also the Director of the Doctoral School of Music and Theater<\/a>, the Music & Transdisciplinary Research Center<\/a> as well as the MUSiQ<\/a> research journal at WUT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Award-winning\u00a0composer Mihai Popean received degrees from\u00a0Bowling Green State University\u00a0of Ohio, USA (DMA and MM), and\u00a0West University of Timisoara, Romania (BM). His teachers include Doctor Honoris Causa Distinguished Artist Professor\u00a0Marilyn Shrude,\u00a0Mikel Kuehn,\u00a0Elainie Lillios, Doctor Honoris Causa\u00a0Remus Georgescu\u00a0and\u00a0Constantin R\u00eep\u0103, Professor Emeritus\u00a0Vasile Beluska\u00a0(Violin), Professor Emeritus\u00a0Vernon Wolcott\u00a0(organ), Ecaterina Bothar (viola) and\u00a0Russell Schmidt\u00a0(jazz) as well as Distinguished Research Professor\u00a0 Verner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-421","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/popean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/popean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/popean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/popean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/popean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/popean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584,"href":"https:\/\/popean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/421\/revisions\/584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/popean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}