Born in 1957 in Romania, Vasile Jucan studied music and cello at the Sigismund Toduță Music High School in Cluj-Napoca and the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in the same city.
In 1987 he became founding member of the Transylvan String Quartet, beside whom, within a relatively short time period, he won numerous national awards, among which the 1st Prize of the Gheorghe Dima National Competition for string quartets, the Prize of the Romanian Critics’ Association, and the Prize of the Composers’ Union of Romania. Within two years after its inception, due to the exceptional professional level, the ensemble was established as official string quartet of the Transylvania Philharmonic in Cluj-Napoca.
The Quartet’s participation in the Orlando Festival in Kerkrade (the Netherlands), in 1990, marked their debut on international stages. As member of the ensemble, Vasile Jucan improved his artistry in chamber music performance by studying with key musical figures, among whom Wilhelm Georg Berger, Gerhard Schulz, Thomas Kakuska, Earl Carlyss, and world-class ensembles such as the Emerson String Quartet, the American String Quartet, the Cleveland String Quartet, and the Mendelssohn String Quartet, performing in concerts alongside consecrated artists in Romania and on grand stages of the world: Ștefan Ruha, Cristina Anghelescu, Marin Cazacu, Dana Borșan, Aurel Marc, Adriana Bera, Daniel Goiți, Mihai Ungureanu, Dan Grigore, Valentin Gheorghiu, Mirel Iancovici, Sherban Lupu, Aurelian Octav Popa, Rudolf Firkušný, Michel Bourdoncle, Rita Sloan, Erick Friedman, Luz Leskowitz, Sharon Bezaly, Jeremy Menuhin, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Dejan Lazić, Götz Teutsch, János Bálint.
His intense concerto activity with the Transylvan String Quartet is reflected in the numerous high-level concerts in Romania and the rest of the world. The Quartet has been invited to prestigious international festivals, such as the Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival (USA), Aldeburgh, Bath, Edinburgh, Belfast Festivals (United Kingdom), Kuhmo (Finland), Bad Gleichenberg, Salzburg (Austria), Chemnitz (Germany), Salamanca (Spain), Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg), Aix-en-Provence (France).
In the multitudinous concerts given abroad during its over 35 years of artistic activity, the Quartet performed in famous concert halls: Wigmore Hall (London), Pleyel (Paris), Queen’s Hall (Edinburgh), Maltings Hall (Aldeburgh), Wheeler Hall (Aspen), Mandell Hall (Chicago), Wilshire Ebell Theatre (Los Angeles), Elmwood Hall (Belfast), Conservatoire royal (Brussels).
Vasile Jucan combines his artistic career with his didactic and managerial activities. Since 2001 he has been member of the teaching staff of the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca, where he received a PhD in 2006 under the supervision of maestro Eduard Terényi. From 2004 to 2012 he was Dean of the Faculty of Musical Performance, and since 2012 he has been the Rector of the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca.
