Chet Baker tribute at Green Hours in Bucharest this Sunday from 8:00 PM. The legendary jazzman's songs will be performed by a quintet, including Ștefan Stoianovici on piano and vocals. That's why we contacted him to give us details about this project dedicated to Chet Baker, but also about his particularly rich activity, as you will hear. Welcome, Ștefan.

Welcome. Thank you for the invitation.

You've got a concert at Green Hours this Sunday, but you've got other events. Since I mentioned the Chet Baker tribute, I saw that you did it in several clubs in Bucharest. Tell us a little bit about how you came up with this idea and who are the bands you play with.

First of all I'll introduce the ensemble. We have Sergiu Bivol on trumpet, Cristian Florea on drums, Lucas Contreras on guitar and Mihai Costăchescu on electric bass. The idea came to me around Chet's birthday. For me this is my vocal debut, meaning that I don't identify myself in any way as a vocalist, but rather as a jazz pianist and composer. But along the way I've been told that my timbre is quite clean and brings a little bit of Chet Baker's timbre. So I finally decided to face this fear, this new stage fright, and try to sing with my voice .

It's been a few of them which have already taken place. Have they gone well? Are you pleased?

I had my debut with this project, also at Green Hours in January, then I had another one at JazzBook. This would be the third. It seems to me that the audience is enjoying the concert and the concept and the music of Chet Baker and the celebration of his personality and it's working, it's going well.

The day before this concert you have another one in a different line-up, let's mention that one too.

That's a project in which I am a sideman, it's called A Social Call, it's by vocalist Marinela Radu. I think it's a recently opened venue, it's called Art-An-Te, I think it's from 7:00 PM.

Anyone who wants to do a bit of research can be slightly confused. If you want to do a beginner's guide to Stefan Stoianovich's work.

I'm also a classical music composer. In fact, I'm currently doing my PhD at the Conservatory, at the University of Music in Bucharest, on classical composition, but I'm researching a subject that combines classical composition and jazz because I'm focussing on the influences of jazz music in Romanian symphonism. I also produce electronic music. I'm also a jazz pianist.

I saw that you also have a jazz trio.

A trio I haven't played with in a while. Yeah, my own trio. There are some recordings on youtube, which are a bit more popular.

You're also in two fusion bands.

I am. The band that I've been in for a while, which is a bit older, we've been playing for three years now. It's called Opening Theory, made up of George Păiș who plays synthesisers, Alex Mușat on drums and me on keyboards. It's quite a unique concert, because it's music that combines jazz and rock, even electronic music. The other project is called The Giga Jazz Machine 3000. The idea was to be an all-star project, meaning that all the members of the band are also alternative band leaders. The band is formed by Sergiu Bivol on trumpet, Mihai Costăchescu on bass, Bodo Tabarca on drums and Răzvan Cipcă on guitar, and me on piano.

Although this is a jazz topic, let's say that you have had important successes as a classical music composer. Your works have been conducted by famous conductors.

I was very fortunate to be able to work with masters Cristian Măcelaru and Cristian Mandeal. There were two concerts of my orchestral work called Hydra, a short work of about 10 minutes.

I would also like to mention a theatre play you did the music for, a play by Alessandro Baricco.

The play is called Novecento. It's actually the text of the play that is also the basis of the film The Legend of 1900. We've moved away quite a lot from the film, I mean the music is completely original, not influenced by Ennio Morricone. It combines the acting with the music. The latter is like a kind of character, and this year we're doing it with the same concept, a kind of jazz suite made up of tableaux.