Violinist Diana Jipa and pianist Stefan Doniga are the first Romanians to perform in Antarctica, but also the ones who bested famous rock band Metallica’s world record as the first musicians to perform on all continents within the span of only a year. The Romanian duo concerted on all seven continents in 98 days, approximately 60 days less than the previous record held by the American band.

In an interview for AGERPRES, the Romanian artists detailed the story and the adventure behind this world record for which they received the official Guinness World Records certificates just a few days ago.

The idea for this record emerged in 2023, when Diana and Stefan were on their first large-scale international tour that had already seen them circumnavigate the globe. More precisely, the idea occurred to them after a concert in New Zealand, as they met with some fellow nationals who had been to Antarctica, where Metallica had already performed.

After several months of negotiations with Guinness, the Romanian musicians secured a contract for a world professional record on condition to meet 23 points, such as ticket sales, a minimum number of participants in the hall, halls accredited for the concert.

In parallel with these negotiations, Diana and Stefan won a Romanian Cultural Institute project dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the 1989 Revolution, ‘The Road of Freedom’, which required them to play one concert each on six continents in a symbolic representation of the freedom of traveling unhindered and think universally.

The musicians’ six-continent tour lasted 23 days between September 7 and October 1, 2024, during which they played in Brussels, Pretoria, Cebu in the Philippines, Auckland in New Zealand, New York and Lima.

In Antarctica, the two left as a donation the violin and the piano they performed on, along with other excerpts of Romanian culture, such as scores by Romanian composers, painting and poetry albums, Romanian-English bilingual volumes, and even a rendition of Mihai Eminescu’s poem The Evening Star in four languages plus Romanian. They also took to the scientific station a plaque with a map of Romania and the title of their project.

Stefan Doniga considers that this record and the world tour are important not only for improving Romania’s image and making Romanian culture known abroad, but, first and foremost, for raising awareness among Romanians about classical music and their national cultural values.

‘Everywhere we’ve been, appreciation for Romanian culture was superlative. We’ve always been invited back, we’ve always been offered larger tours. That’s why such efforts to promote Romanian culture abroad are highly meaningful,’ says Doniga.

The two artists are also the winners of the most important distinction of Romanian music criticism – the Musicrit Excellence Award for 2023.