Born in 1989 in Bucharest, Romania, Sebastian Dumitrescu has lived in Finland since 2003. In 2015 he graduated as Master of Music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, having studied first with Tapio Nevanlinna and later with Juhani Nuorvala. He also studied in Vienna at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Karlheinz Essl. Nowadays, besides composing, he teaches the basics of harmony and voice-leading as well as structural awareness of music at the Sibelius Academy.
Sebastian’s works vary from solo to orchestra, and from theater music to live-electronics. They have been performed in Finland, Romania, Norway, Austria, Germany, Norway, The Netherlands, Canada and Denmark.
Sebastian’s main focus is microtonal music. He has composed several works in 31edo (31 equal divisions of the octave) as well as in other tuning systems such as the “usual” quarter-tone i.e. 24edo, or in 17edo. For several years Sebastian has had a fruitful collaboration with the Dutch Huygens-Fokker foundation – his solo, ensemble and MIDI-automatic works have been played in concerts organized by the foundation in the Muziekgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam.
Besides composing and teaching, Sebastian plays the electric bass. He has played in groups such as Grand Opium and Korvat Auki Ensemble, and in 2019 he premiered Niilo Tarnanen’s electric bass concerto Vaali-ilta. Since 2022 Sebastian is the proud owner of a Lumatone isomorphic keyboard.