The ORIGINS - A Story of Rhythm National Tour, a new project by flautist Matei Ioachimescu, will take place from May 23rd to June 5th, 2025. On this occasion, the musician spoke with our colleague Ioana Țintea.

Matei Ioachimescu, you propose a musical show with rhythms and sounds from four continents. How did you come up with the idea of the "Origins. A Story of Rhythm National Tour"?

This is not the first " attempt" of this kind. Together with my colleagues, Irina Rădulescu and Răzvan Florescu, we have presented some extraordinary shows to the Romanian public, whether they were called Icons or Legends.

So, this time, we started from the idea of an experiment of an academically trained musician collaborating with musicians already well rooted in the jazz and world music scene.

Here is a program that starts from the idea of world rhythms and goes into an area, if you like, closer to jazz, world music... it is an exuberant show. We didn't expect to collaborate so well, there are musicians of the highest caliber - Irina Rădulescu, Răzvan Florescu, Artur Baloch on bass and Filip Goron on drums, musicians already very well established in different musical genres.

Composers Cristian Lolea, Andrei Petrache, Răzvan Florescu and Jorge Rojas sign original works for this project. What can you tell us about the program?

It is a very varied and extremely dynamic program. The idea of collaborating with these composers comes, in fact, from some extremely pleasant experiences with them. Because they are the kind of composers who adapt immediately to a context, the subject being rhythm and a story of rhythms, they have come up with original themes, original rhythms, which complement a program with themes taken from Indian music or flamenco, South American music.

We believe that these composers have adapted perfectly to this program, enriching it and giving it that extra attraction and dynamism.

The tour also includes an educational component, workshops and masterclasses. Why is this kind of interaction with young musicians important to you?

The main reason is the fact that I have been teaching flute at the Faculty of Music in Timisoara since 2020. A long-standing passion of mine has now turned into a profession that I take very seriously. So do my colleagues, teachers in different institutions in the country. We seek to discover those extraordinary talents, while at the same time trying to showcase them. This time, at the beginning of each concert in the country, we have proposed that a young musician or young musicians perform a micro-recital to open our concert.

On the other hand, we offer this set of master classes all over the country, precisely to offer them our way of operating, our way of thinking, to show them, practically, what it means to synchronize with an international level of teaching and playing and performing and a Western European way of thinking so beneficial to these people who, perhaps, otherwise would not have the chance to be discovered.

The tour starts on Friday, May 23rd, at the Cultural Palace in Arad. What is the itinerary after this first concert?

We have a total of 11 concerts all over the country. After Arad will come the concert in Timișoara, at the Youth House. After that, we'll go to Sfântul Gheorghe, we'll go to Bucharest, here we are, at Arcub, in the Great Hall, Gabroveni. After that, we are going to Buzău, to CâmpulungMoldovenesc - look, there are also cities with a smaller cultural offer, but with incredible enthusiasm. Then we will go to Baia Mare, Satu Mare, Bistrița and we will end the tour on June 5th in Cluj-Napoca, at the "Lucian Blaga" National Theatre.