Aurèle Stroë was born in Bucharest in 1932 and studied music at the city's conservatory with the composer Mihail Jora (1891-1971), but above all with Professor Mihail Andricu (1894-1974), who introduced him to all modern music at the risk of his life, music that was totally banned under the Stalinist regime of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (Schönberg, Webern, Messiaen, Bartók, Varèse, Stravinsky, etc.). He was sentenced to death at a trial conducted by the Communist Party, a sentence that was commuted to life imprisonment and then house arrest under Ceaucescu's regime.

It was in this context that Aurèle Stroë premiered his first work, the First Piano Sonata, which caused a scandal in 1955. He went on to write an abundant body of work, gradually establishing himself as the leader of the Romanian school alongside Stefan Niculescu and Tiberiu Olah.

In 1978, he staged his opera Les Choéphores, which was roundly condemned by the authorities, forcing him into exile, first in France, then in the United States, where he was invited as a visiting professor, and finally in Germany, in Mannheim, where he ended his days in general indifference, another form of censorship that is as effective as it is deafening.