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The Romania soprano, Yolanda Márculescu [Marcoulescou] started her career in Bucharest, Romania as one of the premier opera singers in Eastern Europe. In 1968, Yolanda and her husband, violinist Sandu Stern, fled communist Romania for the USA.
Yolanda Márculescu was hired by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Music Department in 1969. As a UWM faculty member, she focused on the development of the genre of the art song. This attention eventually led to UWM hosting a festival celebrating the art song. The first UWM International Festival of the Art Song was held in Milwaukee in 1981. The festival was designed to bring artists from Europe to perform and give master-classes to students and the public. The festival was held biannually until Yolanda Marculescu's death in 1992. |
