CARELS, Marie

Marie Carels is a Belgian composer, pianist and music teacher. Originally from Silly in the Belgian province of Hainaut, she developed cultural and musical exchanges between Belgium and Romania during the early 2000s. In 2003, she travelled to Romania with a group of Belgian students for the performance of her operatic adaptation of Ion Creangă’s fairy tale Harap-Alb (The White Moor). The visit initiated a series of cultural exchanges and eventually led her to settle in Romania.

Carels later pursued a second career as an artisan chocolatier, establishing a workshop in the village of Buzești in southern Romania. Although Belgian music directories identify her as a composer, accessible online sources provide little information about her other compositions, performances or musical training.