Born in 1927, he studied in Bucharest at the Royal Music Academy (1941-46), the Technical Institute (1946-50) and the University of Music (1951-57). He participated in the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt (1966-69) and in the electronic music classes at the Siemens Studio, Munich (1966). He is a Professor of composition and music analysis at the University of Music in Bucharest. He was composer-in-residence at daad in West Berlin (1971-1972) and the Artists' Castle in Wiepersdorf (1992). He is the director of the annual International New Music Week in Bucharest. He lectured at the Sorbonne in Paris (1992) and the Summer Courses in Darmstadt (1992). He is a member of the Romanian Academy (since 1996). He was awarded the Romanian Academy Prize (1962, 1972), and the Prize of the Romanian Composers' Union (eight times). His honours also include four prestigious awards for his entire compositional achievements: the Prix Montreux (the international critics' award, 1985), the Herder Prize (1994), the Grand Prize of the Romanian Composers' Union (1994) and the George Apostu Prize (1994).

Selected works: Symphonies for 15 soloists (1963), Heteromorphy for large orchestra (1967), Formants for string orchestra (1968), Unisonos for orchestra (1970), Ison I for orchestra (1973), Ison II for wind instruments and percussion (1975), Duplum for clarinet and piano (1982), Echos for violin and synthesizer (1984), Cantos for saxophone and orchestra (1984), Invocatio, choral symphonie (1988), Incantation for percussion ensemble (1991), Sincronie for violin, cello and piano(1979), 5 symphonies (1957, 1979, 1984, 1996, 1996).

Sincronie is a piece with an open instrumental formula. In it Stefan Niculescu proposes a new musical form according to the laws of the heterophonic syntax which he discovered 40 years ago. His theory on this syntax and its forms ('synchrony' and 'heteromorphy') is based on the archetypal balance between unison and the plurality of superimposed versions of the same melody.
Irinel Anghel