Oana Catalina Chitu and Bucharest Tango will perform at the European May Fayre (7-8 May), the cultural festival celebrating Europe, hosted by a Flemish mirror tent built around 1920. The Romanian singer and her band will recreate the exquisite Paris of the East.
The event is organised by the Romanian Cultural Institute together with the Flemish Representation in the UK, The European Commission and other European embassies and cultural institutes.
Saturday 7 May 11.30am-12.30pm: seminar Green spaces in our cities 2pm-2.30pm: Dynamo (percussion group) (BE) 2.30pm-3.15pm: Manu Delago and Philipp M Moll (AT) 3.30pm-4pm: Jasper Erkens (BE) 4pm-4.30pm: Dynamo - outside 4.30pm-5.15pm: Due Compare (IT) 5.30pm-6.15pm: Nelda Kuzuma Quartet (LV) 6.15pm-6.35pm: Dynamo - outside
Sunday 8 May 12pm-2.30pm: Balbrozijn (BE) 3pm-4.30pm: Kaláka (HU) 4.30pm-5.30pm: H-Unique (HU) 6pm-7pm: Absynthe Minded (BE)
Bucharest Tango means Oana Catalina Chitu (vocals), Dejan Jovanovic (accordion), Anton Slavici (violin), Alexander Franz (double bass) and Dimitris Christides (percussion). It is a unique project that resurrects music from another era - the sound of Romanian tango as played in Bucharest cafes and parks, restaurants and clubs during the 1930s. Oana Catalina Chitu and her musicians will also play the folk ballads of Maria Tanase (1913-1963), the famous singer nicknamed the Romanian Piaf, one of her all-time idols.
Born in rural Romania, Oana began learning this beautiful, almost vanished music at home, from her father. Today, she is one of the few representatives of the young generation who can approach both tangos and Maria Tanase's ballads with warm authenticity.
When: Sat 7 May 2011, 6.35pm - 7.35pm;
Where: Regent's Park (York Gate).
Admission is free.
