Jazz vocalist Luiza Zan is currently touring multiple cities across the country with her new project, In My Village Symphonic. The soloist is also preparing the release of a new album in November. Find out more about these and many others in Luiza Zan's interview with Viorel Grecu.

We give Luiza Zan another warm welcome back to Radio România Muzical! You had a concert last Monday night, you are preparing for another one tomorrow… Could you tell us more about the dates and your impressions of these events?

We had our fourth concert of this symphonic tour in Iași, as a part of the Romanian Music Festival. It was the only concert of this tour in which we were accompanied by a student orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the "George Enescu" University of Arts in Iași. And it was a fantastic surprise to discover that our students are very, very, very good.

And are you now preparing for a new event in Pitești, tomorrow night?

Yes, tomorrow night we will be performing with the Pitești Philharmonic and we cannot wait for this concert. I have never performed with the Pitești Philharmonic before.

And the day after tomorrow, that is, Friday evening, we will perform as a quintet - with the soloists of this project, Andrei Petrache, Philip Goron, Răzvan Florescu and Mike Alex - as part of the FNT Gala, in the opening of the National Theater Festival at the National Theater in Bucharest, directed by Radu Afrim.

You are currently working on your In My Village Symphonic project, with orchestral arrangements for the pieces on your album, In My Village. You started it with the Radio Chamber Orchestra and, since you cannot have them booked for the entire tour, you perform with a local orchestra wherever you go. That is the way it works, pretty much.

Actually, we wanted to somehow cover the whole country and perform with all the philharmonics. For Andrei Petrache, our conductor, arranger and pianist, it is a huge bonus to be able to perform with so many philharmonics across the country.

Of course, if the Radio Chamber Orchestra wishes to go on tour with us next year, we'd be happy to have them for the new album, as we're working on new discographic material - my first vinyl - and it will be officially released in Bucharest on November 27th, at the Control Club.

So this will be a busy and interesting period for us, and I'd be happy if the jazz audience would maintain their eagerness to see us and listen to us. Culture has always been supported by artists, first and foremost, and no one else. By artists and their audience.

Here it is, a new album! Are there any new compositions? What else can you reveal to us in the preview?

There are some novelties. First of all, it's my first album entirely in Romanian. I won't count the fact that I have a Christmas carol album. So this will be my first jazz album in Romanian. It's called Aer and it is an album that reflects my soul in a very transparent way.

Will you continue to follow this very personal line, the way you have gotten us used to for some time?

I'm starting to get used to being more and more open with the audience. I believe it's a solution to some problems that one gets down the line, with age. You no longer care about the trivial things as much, and you'd much rather be an open book about the big things, as well.

So yes, it is an album full of honesty. It's a very, very revealing album. And I won't be telling you any more than that. What I will tell you, though, is that, as my husband says, this is no longer a sad and melancholic album, but one that is positive and full of hope.

There it is, more good news! Following you, I know that you've always had an intense activity, but this year, at least from an outsider's point of view, looks to be a flourishing one, completely special. There were so many new things. I saw that you even went to Sardinia with another project to perform. Could you confirm this impression in some way?

This year had me booked as an independent musician. You cannot stop. This wave of the internet forces us to always be on high alert, always willing to perform in any context, and to look for opportunities to express ourselves musically on a daily basis.

I came to Sardinia with my gospel project, which is on its 20th anniversary. Because, exactly 20 years ago, also in Sardinia, my gospel project made it to this international choral festival for the first time. And it was a truly emotional experience. I sang with another large gospel choir, and this has solidified my belief that, in truth, no matter what language we speak when we talk to each other, we all speak the same language when we sing.