Critics have found Mihai Măniceanu’s works “imaginative, with surprising sonorities,” identifying influences from the music of Xenakis and Ligeti.

Writes Măniceanu, "My music oscillates between a non-romantic language and a postmodern orientation, through which I reinterpret various historical musical meanings. Cadenza interprets ironically peculiar clichés of the classical language, whereas The Living explores emotional extremes through a direct musical language.”

Măniceanu holds a BA and MA with majors in piano and composition from the National University of Music in Bucharest, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate there in composition. He also studied at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig. His works have been performed by ensembles from Romania and Sweden and by orchestras in Bucharest and Leipzig.