The Israel Festival will take place on May 28 – June 24, 2015, in various cultural hubs in Jerusalem. With the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, Maria Răducanu Quartet will be present in the festival to perform an ethno jazz concert on June 10th, 2015, at 19:00 at the First Station Complex (4 David Remez St., tel: 02-6535239) in Jerusalem.
The event will take place on the International Stage, as part of the series of outdoor events entitled “Music on Derech Milton”.
The musical program includes works from Romanian folklore, interwar romances, Fado, tango and Russian litanies. All the pieces will be performed in an original manner, with elements of jazz, improvisation and contemporary sound.
Free entrance, the number of seats is limited.
The members of the Maria Răducanu Quartet are: Maria Răducanu - vocalist, Chris Dahlgren – bass, Niko Meinhold - piano and Michael Griener – percussion. A Romanian vocalist, a pianist from Hanover, a contrabassist from New York and a drummer from Nuremberg meet in a project honoring the human voice, its strength and its all-powerful poetry. An incredibly diverse repertoire, in which the old Romanian folklore, the Balkan melody and the Russian romance encounter the fado and the Celtic ballads, in a fresh, contemporary idiom, that holds improvisation in high regard. A performance that is characterized by extreme sensibility, subtle shifts of timbre, virtuosity, in short, an explosive mingling of folklore, jazz and avant-garde.
Maria Răducanu was born on the 3rd of November 1967, in Husi, Vaslui County, Romania. An autodidact, she studied the violin and the guitar, as well as French Literature at the A. I. Cuza University from Iasi and at the University of Bucharest.
She collaborated with the most important jazz musicians from Romania, among them being Johnny Raducanu, Mircea Tiberian, Vlaicu Golcea, Sorin Romanescu, Pedro Negrescu, Sorin Terinte, Mihai Iordache, Eugen Nichiteanu, as well as with personalities of the western jazz, such as Maurice de Martin, Jan Roder, Michael Griener, Chris Dahlgren, Ben Alarbanel-Wolff, Travis DiRuzza, Siegfried Kessler, Malo Vallois and Krister Jonsson.
“(…) Maria Raducanu’s voice has certainly been blessed with a rare gift. (…) The casual manner she adopts in approaching the inner nature of the song, the elegance she shows in its smallest details, the delicacy she reveals in touching the words, cleaning them of dust and residues, the nonchalant rhythm in which she swings her song - all communicate a floating feeling that only the voice of the chosen ones prove.(…)” (Matei FLORIAN, “On Spirits and Gift”, “Dilema Veche” Magazine)
Discography:
• Ziori (Tzadik, 2010) with Marc Ribot (guitars, bass) and Nicolai Adi Chiru (2nd guitar)
• Pure Music (The End Film, 2008) with Krister Jonsson (guitar)
• Troika – Chansons Russes (Arbore Sonor, 2005) with Maxim Belciug (guitar)
• La Tarara – Chansons Espagnoles (Arbore Sonor, 2005) with Maxim Belciug (guitar)
• Cântece din Răsărit / Chants du Levant (Institut Francais de Bucarest, 2005) with Jan Roder (bass)
• Lumini (La Strada Music, 2004) with Mircea Tiberian (piano)
• Viaţa Lumii (2003) with Mircea Tiberian Quartet
• Colinde (La Strada Music, 2002) with Vlaicu Golcea (double bass) and Sorin Romanescu (guitar)
• Pe vale (La Strada Music, 2002) with Vlaicu Golcea (double bass) and Sorin Romanescu (guitar) (nominated in Romania for the best jazz creation award)
