Born in 1997, Cadmiel Boțac began studying in Romania at the age of 4. He won many national and international prizes and over the years gave concerts worldwide. His artistic training was complemented by the masterclasses he attended at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, the International Summer Academy Vienna, and the Alsace Summer Academy in France, where he benefited from the guidance of great artists. In November 2021, Cadmiel Boțac’s debut album was released at the Radio Publishing House in Bucharest, a project initiated and coordinated by the Romanian National Radio. The album contains works for solo piano by Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and George Enescu.

Cadmiel is currently a student in the master’s programme at the mdw, in the class of piano professor Stefan Arnold.

In June 2022, Cadmiel won Romania’s New Hope music competition – his prize is a ten-concert tour with ten orchestras in Romania.

In the previous academic year, Cadmiel was awarded the SYLFF scholarship. The Tokyo Foundation supports excellent students from selected universities worldwide through its SYLFF scholarship programme (the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund). Since 1996, the mdw has been one of the approximately 70 universities participating in this programme. From the numerous applications, a specially appointed jury of experts and the mdw SYLFF Steering Committee select excellent students for the SYLFF scholarship.

Cadmiel gained his scholarship with a promising concept consisting of two projects:

Piano lessons for children
In cooperation with the pianist Mihai Fodorean, a music workshop was organised for children in the Căsuța Bucuriei/The Little House of Joy children’s home in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The music lessons were provided for ten children from the home for three months (June–September 2022), once a week. The project organisers taught together with a cooperating piano teacher. 

Cadmiel on the project: “With this project, we wanted to help vulnerable people who need our help. For this reason, I am grateful to the mdw for awarding me this scholarship. With this financial resource, we were able to provide music lessons to children in the children’s home. Although they have a home to live in, these children have no family, no role model in life, and perhaps many of them never feel loved. For this reason, we wanted our involvement to be more than just piano lessons. We wanted to be a role model, building a beautiful relationship that we hope will continue in the future through other collaborations with this children’s home.”

Benefit concert for Phillip House/Casa Filip
On 25 May 2022, the second part of the project took place: a benefit concert for the Phillip House/Casa Filip association. This association houses cancer patients who have to come to Cluj-Napoca for treatment but cannot afford the rent for permanent accommodations. In 2022, the construction of a larger Casa Filip building was started in order to care for more cancer patients.
The benefit concert took place in the Philharmonic Hall in Cluj-Napoca and was performed in collaboration with the cellist Cornelius Zirbo.

Cadmiel: “Through this event, we were able to collect donations and direct them to an association that deals with housing and helping sick people. We are sure that through our work and music, we will be able to alleviate the suffering of people who are experiencing difficult problems. We can only be pleased with the outcome of this project and hope to have the opportunity to develop it further on the next occasion!”