The Jazz Season at the Romanian Athenaeum continues this Monday evening, February 23rd, 2026, with a concert performed by the "Soul Serenade" band. Adelina Chivu - vocals and guitar, Andrei Rotariu - guitar, Alexandru Olteanu - piano will entertain the audience with jazz standards like Comes Love, Alone Together and Autumn Leaves, as well as with blues songs.

I would like you to tell me, for starters, the story behind the "Soul Serenade" band whose member you've been for nearly 15 years.

We've known each other for 15 years, and right from the moment Andrei and I met, we realized that we wanted to work and learn about music together.

We had a very organic journey, I'd say, in the sense that we realised that we have a lot in common musically. Everything went smoothly and we didn't plan anything - music simply led us through life.

We really liked blues and we started by singing blues, and we continued chronologically, ending up combining blues with jazz today and having many collaborations with many beloved and talented musicians from Romania.

We are still very excited. We celebrated 15 years of activity today.

What can you tell me about the collaboration with the pianist Alexandru Olteanu?

It was musical chemistry at first sight. We met at a festival called "Weekend Sessions" at the Botanical Garden in Bucharest and we called him on stage to play a song together. We kind of knew each other, but we had never played together before. And after playing a song at the festival, we realized that we'd like exploring more of what was going on. And since then we've had so many concerts and so many plans and ideas up until this year when we are releasing an album together. We're very excited.

From my understanding, most of the songs that you will present on the Athenaeum stage coincide with the repertoire that you're preparing for the album. Is that right?

That's precisely right. Of course, we'll add the songs that won't be on the album as well as others that we've worked on in the meantime, but yes, it will be some sort of rendition of what we played for the album. We recorded it in one take, meaning that we were all in the room and everything happened naturally. The recorded album has a "live" vibe.

What are some of the key points of Soul Serenade's activity until now?

It could be pointed out that, at the beginning of our band, we participated at an international festival. We were the youngest band in the competition. It was a European festival called "European Blues Challenge", and we had the pleasure and the honour of taking 2^nd place at this competition. After that, a series of festivals and concerts in Europe followed and a lot of activity in Romania - many festivals and wonderful places where we've played over the years.

We also played in the USA for a bit. We had the opportunity to play as the opening act of some Grammy winners. And I think the highlight will be the album we're going to release this year.

Circling back to the concert on the Athenaeum stage, you will bring to the audience jazz standards like Comes Love, Alone Together, the well-known Autumn Leaves, as well as blues songs. A predominantly '30s-'40s repertoire… How would you describe your approach to these songs that have been interpreted and reinterpreted until now in countless versions?

I'd say that the beauty of the music we play comes from the fact that every person that participates in creating and interpreting it comes with their own contribution and touch. I think that we are very lucky that, in the formation we'll appear on Monday at the Athenaeum, each of us has a very rich personality. And not only that, but instead of clashing, we blend very well. Each one brings their own experience on the stage, all the hours of study, all the passion, all the excitement, and we create what defines us.

What initially drew you to this repertoire?

It's a bit hard to say because it wasn't an intentional choice. For me, I could say it was the way my voice functions or sounds that has seemed to match very well with the musical genre, but also the sensibility and the emotion that the musical genre we play conveys. This would be my take on it.