Duo Kitharsis - Alexandra Petrișor and Dragoș Horghidan is a classical guitar duo performing on stage since 2009. After successfully graduating as solo artists from the Faculty of Music Performance, The National University of Music Bucharest, under the guidance of their guitar professor, Lecturer Cătălin Stefănescu-Pătrașcu, PhD, in 2012 they pursued a Master’s degree as a guitar duo at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. In 2016 they succesfully graduated a Master degree at HEAR Strasbourg (Music Academy of Strasbourg) and at University of Strasbourg with excellent distinctions.
Between 2013-2015 they have been students of the Conservatoire de Strasbourg (Cycle de spécialisation « Duo de guitares ») under the guidance of one of the most well-known guitar duos, Duo Melis, Alexis Muzurakis and Susana Prieto.In 2016 they succesfully graduated a Master degree in « Duo de guitares » at the HEAR Strasbourg (Haute école des arts du Rhin) and at the University of Strasbourg. Beside their final concert-exam, which was a great succes (avec mention excellent), Alexandra wrote her thesis about the music composed for two guitars (Aspects techniques et d'interprétation de la musique écrite pour deux guitares de la période classique jusq'à nos jours) and Dragoș wrote his thesis about the music transcribed for two guitars (Les transcriptions pour deux guitares. Aspects techniques et influences sur l’écriture guitaristique).In 2017 they also followed the Parcours personnalisé studies as a guitar duo at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg.Duo Kitharsis was invited to give concerts on international stages in U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Poland and India among famous international artists in numerous guitar festivals. They successfully performed with standing ovations at the Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in London. They performed in Paris at the Hôtel de Soubise - Archives nationales in the concert series organized by the "Jeunes Talents" Association and in the "Nouveaux Talents" series held at the The Auditorium - Cité de la musique et danse in Strasbourg.In 2014, the third edition of the extraordinary tour "Music in Romania's Palaces" featured Duo Kitharsis as the protagonists and proved to be a great success among the classical music lovers.Duo Kitharsis played Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's "Concerto for two guitars and orchestra" with the National Radio Bucharest Orchestra in 2015 (National Premiere). Since then, they have been invited to perform reagularly with the orchestras all around the world. In May 2019, they had a Polish Tour of concerts, and they performed the Concerto with the Zielona Gora Philharmonics.The first CD of the duo was recorded at the QBK Records in 2015 and was received with a huge entusiasm bu the guitar music lovers.They are regularly invited to perform in some of the most prestigious concert halls: The Romanian Atheneum, Sutu Palace, Mogosoaia Palace, Cantacuzino Palace, Peleș Castle, Bran Castle, just to name a few.In December 2019 they performed in India at the 10th edition of The Calcutta International Guitar Festival.In 2020 Duo Kitharsis recorded a second CD - Duo Kitharsis plays Chopin at the DA Guitar Records.Their high-ranked recording projects are worldwide distributed in the online stores.They have taken part in differrent competitions with the following distinctions:
*1st Prize at IX.Transilvania International Guitar Competition, Cluj Napoca (Romania) 2011.*2nd Prize at X.European Classical Guitar Competition"Enrico Mercatali", Gorizia (Italy) 2013.*Prize "Champagne Mailliard" at 28th European Chamber Music Competition, Paris (France) 2014.*1st Prize at V."Drumul spre celebritate" Competition, Bucharest (Romania) 2014.*1st Prize at "Concorso di Esecuzione Musicale ''Citta di Piove di Sacco'', Padova (Italia) 2014*1st Prize at III. "Concorso Internazionale di Esecuzione Musicale", Castel Ritaldi (PG), (Italia) 2014.*GRAND PRIX at IX."International Guitar Course and Competition", Olsztyn, (Poland) 2014.*2nd Prize at 2nd Ligita Liechtensteiner Gitarrentage Guitar Duo Competition, Liechtenstein 2016.*1st Prize at 20th ‘’Ciutat d’Elx’’ Chamber Music with Guitar International Competition, Elche, Spain 2018.