Christine Maria Surdu

After completing her university studies, Surdu returned to her hometown of Reșița. She initially worked as an English teacher for four years at the local Diaconovici-Tietz High School. Despite her teaching career, she remained deeply involved in church activities and felt a calling to church music. In 1997, she joined the staff of the Roman Catholic parish of Our Lady of the Snows church as a full-time music coordinator. Since then, Surdu has served as the parish’s organist and cantor.^[1]

In her role at Our Lady of the Snows, Surdu is responsible for all aspects of liturgical music. She provides organ accompaniment for Masses and other religious services and leads congregational singing. Local media have noted that her voice and musicianship form “the beautiful voice that greatly contributes to the musical framework” of the church’s worship services. Surdu also directs the parish’s choral groups as the coordinator and conductor of the youth choir called Fiamma, which animates weekly youth liturgies. Surdu helped found Fiamma in the early 2000s, and the choir’s name (meaning “flame” in Italian) was chosen with inspiration from the Catholic Focolare Movement to which the group is connected. Under her leadership, Fiamma typically comprises around ten teenagers and performs contemporary and liturgical music at church services. In addition to the youth ensemble, Surdu collaborates with the adult parish choir, Harmonia Sacra, which is conducted by Georg Colța, often providing organ accompaniment for the choir’s performances in the liturgy.^[1]

One of the most notable initiatives involving Surdu was the “Reșița 250” concert series in 2021. This project was a cycle of organ concerts hosted at Our Lady of the Snows Church to celebrate 250 years of industry in Reșițauzprcarasseverin.org. Surdu was featured as one of the main performers in the inaugural concert of the series on May 16, 2021. In that opening recital – titled Canticum laudis pro Reșița 250 – she played the historic Wegenstein pipe organ of the church alongside fellow organists Cristian Roșoagă and Patrick Paulescu, and also contributed as a vocal soloist during the program. The concert series, organized in partnership with the local German cultural forum, continued monthly and brought guest organists from Timișoara and elsewhere.^[2]

Surdu has also been instrumental in marking important milestones for the church and local Catholic community. In November 2022, Our Lady of the Snows Church celebrated its 175th anniversary (since the construction and consecration of the current church building in 1847). During the solemn jubilee Mass on 20 November 2022, presided over by Bishop József-Csaba Pál, Surdu served as one of the organists accompanying the liturgy. She played the organ alongside her colleague Patrik Paulescu, providing the musical accompaniment for the combined children’s and adult choirs that sang during the celebration. This anniversary Mass included participants from various Catholic parishes and even other denominations and was a trilingual event.^[3]

Christine Surdu also takes part in ceremonies and cultural festivals in the Banat region. For instance, in January 2012 she provided the organ accompaniment for a special Requiem Mass in Reșița that commemorated the local victims of the 1945 deportation of ethnic Germans to the Soviet Union. At that memorial liturgy, Surdu’s organ music – supported by members of the Harmonia Sacra parish choir – honored the survivors and those who perished during the deportations.^[3] Surdu was similarly involved in a tribute concert held in January 2017 to honor the legacy of Monsignor Iosif Gerstenengst, a celebrated organist and former curate of Reșița. The event, organized on the 25th anniversary of Gerstenengst’s death, featured Surdu as one of the organists in a chamber concert alongside other musicians from around the region. The concert program included works by Corelli, Vivaldi, Cherubini, and Franck, and concluded with an improvisation on the well-known hymn “Großer Gott, wir loben Dich” – with Surdu’s organ performance paying homage to Gerstenengst’s influence on the local musical tradition.^[4]

Surdu’s engagements also extend to diocesan and ecumenical events outside Reșița. In June 2022, she led the Our Lady of the Snows parish choir at the Festival of Families held at the Marian basilica of Maria Radna (in Lipova). At this large gathering of Catholic families from the Timișoara Diocese, Surdu’s choir provided the musical animation for the Mass, singing hymns and responses in both Romanian and Hungarian, while one of her protégés, Patrick Paulescu, played the organ prelude.^[3]

Over the years, Christine Maria Surdu has worked closely with organizations such as the Democratic Forum of Banat Germans and the German Association for Culture and Adult Education in Reșița, which often partner with the Our Lady of the Snows church parish on concerts and heritage events.^[2]