The Big Band Radio is preparing The Ages of Jazz, a live foray into the history of jazz, which will take place on Thursday at the Sala Radio, starting at 19:00. The soloist will be Christiana Uikiza, a Romanian-born artist enjoying great success in Vienna. We find out more about Christiana Uikiza in her interview with Viorel Grecu.

You have quite a long career in Vienna. How would you introduce yourself to those who don't know you, what do you consider to be the most important achievements of what you have done so far?

I am very happy to finally be in Bucharest. I just realized that it's my first time here and I'm very happy to meet the audience here. I'm a jazz and soul singer. My biggest accomplishments I think would be opening for Tom Jones, the fact that I've had some legends in music play on my album, like David Sanborn, Vinnie Colaiuta, Kevin Mahogany, I've also collaborated with Dominic Miller on some live projects, I've also collaborated with Herbie Hancock. Over time certain references have been gathered. In Romania I collaborated with the Sibiu Philharmonic, I had concerts in Deva, Brasov, Sibiu, Timisoara, I played at jazz festivals in Braila and Galati, but I just concluded that Bucharest had to be the next one.

How did you come to this collaboration with Big Band Radio?

I was proposed by the organizers of the New Year's concerts in Sibiu, the ones with the philharmonic, who already know me for many years and yes, I was proposed for a jazz festival in Pitesti, where I will be on Friday, also with the Big Band and there, and to somehow tie this story and not just come for a concert, the Big Band had the brilliant idea to do a concert in Bucharest.

About the repertoire, I guess most of the themes are familiar to you from your other projects. What can you tell us about what you'll be playing on Thursday night?

I'm familiar with the repertoire, it's jazz standards that most people know, even the general public, not just the specialist audience, and I'm really looking forward to performing pieces like Embraceable You or Fever, Don't Get Around Much Anymore. There are some more up-tempo ones, some ballads, to cover as wide a palette as possible and as wide a range of decades of jazz classics.

While researching about you, finding out that you are of Croatian origin, that you have been living in Vienna for many years, I thought that I should prepare some questions in English, so that I could hear you speaking Romanian at the best possible level. How do you explain that? Just your multilingual skills or do you have a permanent connection with the country?

I have a very good memory in the first place, it's also the reason why I've learned many languages, but it's not only that, and links with the country, of course, four languages I speak fluently, every day, and one of them is Romanian. There are others which are in a passive state, which I still speak, but I think it is a shame to leave your country and not know your language, regardless of when you left. I left in 1995. It's 30 years since I left. I finished my pedagogical high school here, then I studied publishing and journalism in Zagreb, and I wrote my diploma thesis in Croatian. I remember when I was in high school, when our parents started to go abroad, I used to make fun of the fact that they didn't know Romanian after two months and I promised myself that this would never happen to me and when I felt at a certain point after a few years that I was starting to lose my coherence, I started to read classical literature or current authors, Paraschivescu is my favorite, I like his vocabulary enormously.

You actually worked for it.

Yeah, I sure did. I made a very conscious effort and I don't think that will ever change.