Grigoraș Dinicu

Born in Bucharest into a family of lăutari, Grigoraș Dinicu combined Romanian traditional music with a classical violin career. He entered the Bucharest Conservatory in 1902, studying with Dumitru Kiriac-Georgescu, Alfonso Castaldi and Carl Flesch, and wrote Hora staccato in 1906; Jascha Heifetz later made his own arrangement of it. For years he led ensembles in the restaurants and hotels of Bucharest, and his own pieces include Hora mărțișorului, Ceasornicul and Căruța poștei. In the 1930s he was made honorary president of the General Union of the Romanian Roma. He died in Bucharest in 1949, a few days short of sixty. He took his ensembles abroad as well, appearing in connection with the Paris exhibition of 1937 and the New York World's Fair two years later. Hora de concert stands beside the other dances in his catalogue.