Saxophonist Nicolas Simion is returning to Romania next week for a new series of concerts. The first will take place on Wednesday in Bucharest, at Zadar Bar, with a group called Nicolas Simion & The New Generation. A week later, the saxophonist will also perform at the Athenaeum. Nicolas Simion himself, whom we have on the phone at Radio România Muzical, tells us more. Welcome, Nicolas.

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Let's go through the concerts in chronological order. What's the story behind The New Generation? You've played with the founders of modern Romanian jazz, like Janos Korosi and Dan Mândrilă, and now it seems you're embracing the new wave as well.

In recent years, a new generation has emerged, which is a wonderful thing for the jazz scene. Many young people, most of whom have studied at the Conservatory-some in the jazz department, others in classical or composition. I've been following them from the sidelines and decided to invite them to play with me.We're talking about Andrei Petrache, a pianist and composer; then Răzvan Florescu on vibraphone, which is a rarer instrument; and the third member is Filip Răzvan Cipcă, a young guitarist. The idea was to collaborate with them, to play together, to inspire one another-me picking up ideas from them, and them perhaps taking certain things from me or, let's say, from the program I've put together, which includes my own compositions and arrangements. The goal is to create a shared space for each of us, where they can feel comfortable, free, and bring in their ideas and the inspiration that comes with their age.

After the concert at Zadar Bar, there will be a performance at the Athenaeum, in a completely different lineup, featuring a Greek pianist.

I met Antonis Anissegos, who lives in Berlin, in Vienna in the early '90s. Of course, being ten years younger, he was just starting out-discovering jazz music, coming from a background in classical and contemporary music. The name of the project is Classic meets Jazz, which means a fusion of contemporary classical music and contemporary jazz.

This event will take place on April 23rd, in the Small Hall, starting at 7 PM. Until the end of the month, you have a few more concerts scheduled-can you tell us about those as well?

We'll have a concert at Buzdugan Manor near Bacău, where I've performed in previous years too, on April 25th. Then, on April 26th, we'll be back in Bucharest at JazzBook.

In a different setup.

The idea was to also perform with a rhythm section-that is, with bass and drums. Frankie Ercsei will be coming from Cluj on drums, then we have Răzvan Cojanu on double bass, Antonis Anissegos, of course, on piano, and we'll also have Vlad Briciu on keyboards.