George Dumitriu has been named in the violin/viola category of El Intruso’s International Critics Poll in two consecutive years — the 15th Annual (2022) and the 16th Annual (2023) — on ballots shared with Mat Maneri, Jessica Pavone and Mark Feldman.
He is a poly-instrumentalist — viola, violin, guitar — performer and composer, internationally active in jazz, improvised music, contemporary classical music and music theatre.
His path began in classical training and later grew new roots into jazz improvisation. He had already won more than fifteen national and international prizes as a violinist before entering the Bucharest National University of Music, and after graduating went on to study jazz guitar in Groningen, Amsterdam and New York.
Along the way he has worked with Pat Metheny, Ambrose Akinmusire, Kaja Draksler, Michael Formanek, Samora Pinderhughes, Otis Sandsjö, Michel Godard, Ab Baars, Joachim Badenhorst, Michael Moore, Benny Golson, Dick Oatts, Thanasis Deligiannis and Jim Black.
He performs internationally with the North Sea String Quartet, Tijn Wybenga & Brainteaser Orchestra, Black Sea Songs, Eve Risser’s Ensemble Ensemble, the Kaja Draksler Octet, Dutch National Opera & Ballet and For Real, and in a long-standing duo with singer Sanem Kalfa.
His solo album Monk on Viola (Evil Rabbit, 2023) reimagines nine Thelonious Monk compositions for unaccompanied viola. Reviewed across Europe and the United States — in Trouw, Jazzism, Citizen Jazz, All About Jazz, Jazz.pt and Salt Peanuts — it appeared in Peter Margasak’s and Karl Ackermann’s albums of 2023, and among The New York City Jazz Record’s recommended new releases.
“The music straddles so-called jazz and contemporary music with more imagination and brio than almost anything commanding attention in European concert halls these days.” — João Esteves da Silva, Jazz.pt
As leader of DUMItRIO he released Proverbe (TryTone 2017) and Future Nostalgia (2014), and he was commissioned by North Sea Round Town to form the George Dumitriu Hazard Ensemble. He appears as a sideman on Clean Feed, Evil Rabbit, Zennez and Berthold Records.
He teaches violin, viola and guitar at the Utrecht Conservatory (HKU).