biography
Adrian Mocanu (b. 1989) is a Romanian-Ukrainian composer currently based in Valencia, Spain.
He studied at the National Music Academy of Ukraine and carried out his postgraduate studies in electroacoustic composition at Centro Superior Katarina Gurska in Madrid. His works have been awarded at such competitions as the 38th Frederic Mompou International Award (Barcelona, 2017), the 5th Mauricio Kagel Composition Competition (Vienna, 2022), XXXIII Young Composers Prize SGAE-CNDM (Madrid, 2022), “George Stephănescu" International Composition Competition (Bucharest, 2024) and the 1st San Francisco de Asís International Composition Competition (San Sebastián, 2025). In 2025, he received the Azrieli Commission for International Music in the frame of the Azrieli Music Prizes 2026 in Montreal, Canada, which included a commission of a new work for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
He was the composer-in-residence of JM Spain for the 23/24 season and was granted the Weltoffenes Berlin Fellowship from the Senate of Berlin in 2024. He received scholarships and carried out residencies at Casa de Velázquez - the Academy of France in Madrid, The Green Room for Performing Artists (Cologne), Malévoz Quartier Culturel (Monthey, Switzerland), Schleswig-Holsteinisches Künstlerhaus otte1 (Eckernförde, Germany), “Cămine în mișcare: Moving Fireplaces” (Timișoara, Romania), “Odyssée” program from the Association of Cultural Meeting Centres/ACCR and the Ministry of Culture of France, “Gaude Polonia” from the Ministry of Culture of Poland, and “Postcolonial Recherche” from Goethe-Institut. In 2024, he received a commission from DEBUT Classical Singing Competition in Germany to create a mandatory composition for voice and orchestra for this contest, and in 2025 he became one of the artists selected for the residency at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome.
He collaborated with and wrote works for such ensembles as Ensemble Musikfabrik, Maulwerker, Ensemble Recherche, IEMA-Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, PinkNoise Ensemble, Barcelona Modern, Bilbao Sinfonietta, Continuum XXI and Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
