At Home with Carmen and Cezar Mateiescu By Linda Arntzenius | Photography by Andrew Wilkinson
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Music for a while, shall all your care’s beguile. —Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
f the life story of accomplished musicians Carmen and Cezar Mateiescu was presented as an opera it would surely be styled as an Elizabethan romance, complete with cruel tyrant, divided and re-united lovers, and a long sojourn in the Holy Land, where he works as a carpenter against a backdrop of monasteries and rose gardens, and she gives birth to their first son in Nazareth. Far-fetched? Not one bit. Both the Mateiescus were born and raised in Communist Romania. Under President Nicolae Ceaușescu from 1967 until 1989, it was not a happy place to be. Shortly after Cezar graduated high school in the 1970s, he followed his sculptor father, Patrick Mateescu, to the United States where the renowned Bucharest artist had a commission for work in California. By this time, Cezar and Carmen had already formed a close attachment, having met at the Bucharest conservatory of music where Cezar took lessons from Carmen. They kept in touch but it was some years before they were re-united and married in Jerusalem’s Greek Orthodox Church. In Israel, while waiting for permission to make their journey to the United States, the couple volunteered to work in several monasteries including the Greek monastery on the Mount of Olives. There, Cezar honed his skills as a carpenter and repaired musical instruments. In Nazareth, he rebuilt monastery windows and tended the rosegarden of the Greek Patriarch, now a must-see on the tourist itinerary. Having brought them together, music continues at the center of their lives. Carmen teaches and composes as adjunct professor at the Westminster Choir College of Rider University and head of the theory department at Westminster Conservatory of Music. Cezar makes instruments: lutes, early guitars, vihuelas (a Spanish lute/guitar hybrid) from the medieval through the Baroque periods. Her passion lies in the oral tradition of peasant music from central Europe and the Himalayas to Gregorian and Byzantine chant, and her compositions are performed in Princeton, Philadelphia and New York. Transformed from lifeless blocks of wood, his hand-crafted instruments are prized by worldclass musicians like the Argentine-born lutenist Evangelina Mascardi and French composer Stephane Wrembel. You may have heard the latter’s music in two of Woody Allen’s most evocative movies, Midnight in Paris and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
And then there’s Sting. After being introduced to Cezar’s instruments by Bosnian-born lutenist Edin Karamazov, the former Police lead singer now owns no less than four. With Karamazov, who is acclaimed for thrilling solo recitals and performances with leading international early music groups, Sting demonstrated his love of the lute on a U.K. charttopping album Songs from the Labyrinth. To his fans, it seemed like quite a departure for the singer best known for the hit songs “Roxanne,” “Every Breath You Take,” and “Fields of Gold.”
Orthodox Christian Icon by the hand of Carmen Mateiescu, a student of Vladislav Andrejev, founder of the Prosopon School of Iconology.
Featuring compositions from John Dowland (1563-1626), Songs from the Labyrinth started a lute Renaissance after it was released in 2006. Check it out on YouTube or on the live concert DVD documentary, a showcase for several of Cezar’s 13-string archlutes. They even play “Message in a Bottle.” Sting’s breathy tenor suits Dowland’s haunting melodies and love lyrics. He brings a freshness to the work of the Elizabethan master he describes as “the first English singer/songwriter.” Calling them “pop songs written around 1600,” he said, “I relate to them in that way; beautiful melodies, fantastic lyrics, and
great accompaniments.” Sting clearly relishes these works as is evident in multiple YouTube videos. For the first lute that Sting commissioned of Cezar, the couple traveled to New York to meet him in his Manhattan apartment. Subsequently, a chauffeured limousine was sent to the Mateiescus’ Princeton Junction residence to collect an instrument that sat like a VIP on the back seat. At Home in Princeton Junction
The Mateiescus’ remodeled ranch house has a peaceful ambiance. Cezar designed and built an additional music room and dining room to take what had been a simple ranch to a more personal residence. The house sits on 1.5 acres, guarded by half-century old maple trees, which inspired the name the couple chose for their home, “Maple Glade Cottage.” Art objects of personal significance and Orthodox Christian icons evoke more reverential times. Some of the icons were recently created by Carmen, a student iconographer under Maureen McCormick, with whom she continues to study and participate in yearly workshops led by Vladislav Andrejev (founder of the American Prosopon School of Iconology) at Trinity Church in Princeton. Artfully arranged stringed instruments stand ready to be picked up and played. The house has been altered considerably since they bought it some 14 years ago. Inside, improvements can be seen in the expansive and light-filled music room and in Cezar’s climatecontrolled workshop. Outside, the garden has sculptural installations, some by Cezar, others by his father, Patrick, now retired and living with his wife Rodica in South Brunswick. Now 87, Patrick Mateescu’s body of work includes large pieces displayed on American campuses including the “Westminster Flower” in front of Westminster Choir College’s Talbott Library. Now American citizens, the Mateiescus have two sons. Nicholas, 28, studied mechanical engineering at NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) and now works in White Plains. Matthew, 26, studied at the Pratt Institute and is now a graphic designer in Manhattan. This month, the Mateiescus celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.
holiday 2014 PRINCETON MAGAZINE
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