Ms. Rotaru (b. 1951) is a composer of mostly orchestral and chamber works that have been performed throughout the world. Her honors include seven prizes from the Romanian Composers Union (from 1981 through 2001), the Prize of the Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences (1986) and the First Prize in the GEDOK Competition in Mannheim (1994, for Symphony II). She received commissions from ensembles, orchestras and soloists from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK, as well as the French Ministry of Culture, Radio France, Radio Graz, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Since 1997, she has been a professor of composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest. Ms. Rotaru has composed choral and didactic music, and wrote, among others, about the counterpoint of Johann Sebastian Bach and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1986, Editura Muzicală, Bucharest).