Yolanda Marculescu-Stern started her career in Bucharest, Romania as one of the premier
opera singers in Eastern Europe. In 1968, Yolanda and her husband, violinist Sandu Stern,
fled communist Romania for the United States. Yolanda Marculescu-Stern was hired by the UWM
Music Department in 1969. As a UWM faculty member, Yolanda Marculescu-Stern focused on the
development of the genre of the art song. This attention eventually led to UWM hosting a
festival celebrating the art song. The first UWM International Festival of the Art Song was
held in Milwaukee in 1981. The festival was designed to bring artists from Europe to perform
and give master classes to students and the public. The festival was held biannually at UWM
until Yolanda Marculescu-Stern's death in 1992. After her death, the Peck School of Arts
renamed the Vocal Arts Series to the Yolanda Marculescu Vocal Arts Series in her honor.
