Maria Lataretu became the solo singer of the first Romanian State Orchestra of folk-music, founded in 1949 at the Folklore Institute-then 'Barbu Lautaru' Orchestra. Like the great folk bards, Maria Lataretu was also a gifted creator. She constantly implanted her thoughts and feelings in the rich soil of the Romanian popular song. Each verse in her memory encouraged her to imagine new ones, a fragment of a song or a repeated turn guided her to conceive a new song.