Maria-Cristina Necula ’97

Maria-Cristina Necula is a writer and classically trained singer.

Her published work includes the books The Voice Beneath the Quince Tree: A Memoir of Growing Up in Communist Romania, The Don Carlos Enigma, and Life in Opera, two translations: Europe à la carte and Molière’s The School for Wives (her senior project at Purchase), and the collection of poems Evanescent. Her articles and interviews have been featured, among other publications, in Opera America and Das Opernglas. She is a regular contributor to Classical Singer Magazine and the culture & society website Woman Around Town.

As a classically trained singer, Maria-Cristina has performed in the New York City area at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Florence Gould Hall, and the Westchester Broadway Theatre, and has presented on opera at The Graduate Center, CUNY, Baruch, The City College of New York, and UCLA Southland.

Maria-Cristina holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from The Graduate Center. In 2022,  she was awarded a New York Press Club Award in the Critical Arts Review category for her review of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice at the Metropolitan Opera, published on Woman Around Town.

Between 2022 and 2024, she was a Fellow of The Writers’ Institute at The Graduate Center. Currently, Maria-Cristina serves as the Director of Alumni Engagement at Lehman College.

See more on her website: mariacristinanecula.com