Irina Ungureanu

Irina Ungureanu (born in Bucharest in 1984) is a Romanian-born soprano and improvising vocalist working in Switzerland. She studied singing at the Zurich University of the Arts with Jane and David Thorner-Mengedoht. Her artistic interests connect early and contemporary music, lieder and oratorio, musical theatre, free vocal improvisation and the Romanian folk traditions she has known since childhood.

She has performed with Ensemble ö!, Vokalensemble Zürich, Ensemble TaG, the Basler Madrigalisten and the Ensemble für neue Musik Zürich, and has appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Lucerne Festival and festivals devoted to contemporary music in Switzerland and Romania. Her collaborations include pianist Simone Keller and the group Grünes Blatt, which explores Romanian folk song and improvisation. In 2019 she received an IBK award for the interpretation of contemporary music.

For Creative Sources, Ungureanu participated in Millefleurs (CS163), a recording by the Swiss ensemble of twelve vocal improvisers organised in changing combinations. Recorded in Therwil in January and February 2009, the album uses the human voice as its sole instrumental material, moving from individual utterances to layered collective textures. She performs on tracks 1, 2 and 4–11; her solo voice opens the album on Galanthus Nivalis.