Virgil Gheorghiu

Virgil Romulus Gheorghiu (March 22, 1908–March 7, 1977) was a Romanian poet and musician.

Born in Roman, his father Miltiade Gheorghiu was a career army officer, while his mother was a primary-school teacher. He attended high school in his native town and in Bucharest, also studying piano with Emilia Saegiu (1923-1925) and taking courses from 1925 to 1926 at the Bucharest Conservatory, where his professors included Dumitru Georgescu Kiriac and Alfonso Castaldi. From 1926 to 1926, he lived in Iași, where he participated in the local avant-garde movement. This period followed an inconclusive literary debut with the 1925 book Cântările răsăritului, prefaced by Demostene Botez. In 1928, together with A. Zaremba, he edited the surrealist magazines Prospect and XX, literatură contemporană. From 1928 to 1930, he studied music in Vienna under Hugo Reinhold and Friedrich Wührer. From 1930 to 1932, thanks to a scholarship obtained through Ion Minulescu, then director general at the Culture and Arts Ministry, he studied at the Schola Cantorum de Paris under Paul Braud. While in Romania during this time, he attended Eugen Lovinescu's literary circle. In 1933, he received a citation for his performance at an international piano competition held in Vienna. From 1932 to 1939, he was a pianist in the Boniș trio. In 1940, he entered the sanatorium in Moroeni in order not to be drafted into the army; he was removed by George Enescu in 1943.