Lucian Ban is here with us at Radio România Muzical just before the concert at the Romanian Athenaeum - but there are several more concerts coming up. Looking at your tour schedule, you're pretty much covering all corners of Romania. Where can audiences see you next?

We started in Iași, which was special for me because it was my first time back there in almost 20 years - I hadn't performed in Iași in a long time. We played in a beautiful venue; the Aula of the Central University Library "King Ferdinand I", whose name could still be seen above the entrance. After that, we flew to Timișoara and performed at the "Banatul" Philharmonic on Saturday. Then on Sunday - election day - we had a concert at the Philharmonic in Arad. The venue there was stunning, the early-20^th-century Palace of Culture in Arad. Enescu once said it had the best acoustics in Romania after the Athenaeum. I had performed in Arad before, but never in that building, which housed the Philharmonic. Tomorrow, we'll play at the Romanian Athenaeum in the Grand Hall. I just spoke with the organizers, and it's nearly sold out, there are maybe 10 or 15 tickets left. I'm glad to see that jazz - or whatever it is that we play - can still fill the hall. For the first time ever, I'll perform at the Maria Filotti Theatre in Brăila. I've played before at the Lira Philharmonic there, but never in the beautiful building of the Maria Filotti Theatre. That's on the 22^nd. On the 23^rd, we'll be in Brașov, where the director of the Bartók Archives in Budapest, Vikárius László, will hold a lecture on Bartók's research in Transylvania. That will be followed by the opening of the Retracing Bartók exhibition by the organization in Timișoara that has been in charge of this project since 2018, part of Timișoara's European Capital of Culture initiative. That's how we were able to begin this research - we had artistic residencies there, not quite the kind that people usually imagine jazz musicians doing.On the 24^th, we'll perform at Chamber Jazz in Brașov, at the Multicultural Center of Transilvania University, where we'll also launch the album, followed by a post-concert discussion moderated by Adrian Lăcătuș, the Center's director, and VikáriusLászló. On the 25^th, we'll head closer to where I grew up - in Bistrița-Năsăud. I spent my childhood in a village near Reghin, not far from where Bartók collected folk songs, just a few kilometres from Urișiu. When I saw those places listed, I was amazed - like, "Wow, I can't believe this". We'll perform at the George Coșbuc Palace of Culture in Bistrița. I'm collaborating there with some incredible cultural promoters, including Gabriel Țărmure. They created a Transylvanian orchestra in a region that didn't have a Philharmonic. They made it happen. Then we'll go west, to Zalău. I've always enjoyed playing not just in big cities. Of course, we perform in places like Chicago, New York, Paris - but there's something extraordinary about playing in smaller towns, because the audience responds differently. In Zalău, at the Cultural Center of Sălaj County, there is a great team deeply connected to folklore. We've been working together for years. Everyone is truly devoted to music, and every time I play there, people come from all over - from Jimbolia, from small villages and towns that we wouldn't usually visit. After that, we'll perform in Baia Mare at the Painter's Colony, and finally, we'll wrap up the tour in Cluj-Napoca at Insomnia.

So, in a way, you're bringing the songs of Romanian peasants from Transylvania back home, since many of these concerts are close to the places where those songs were created. I'd also like to talk a bit about Mat Maneri. You've had a musical partnership with him for over a decade and a half.

Over 15 years, yes.

How did that come about? He plays with such fluency. I've seen you perform in duo, but also in larger groups - trios, like the ones with John Surman or Evan Parker. What makes this partnership work and last? And how did you draw him toward Romanian music?

Like many things in life, it started by chance. Mat Maneri came into the picture because the cellist I had originally wanted for a project commissioned by the Enescu Festival wasn't available. I was invited by the Enescu Festival in 2008 to reimagine Enescu's instrumental music for a jazz ensemble. I jumped at the opportunity and, together, with bassist John Hébert - one of today's great jazz bassists - we put together an ensemble with top New York jazz musicians who were already exploring the boundary between contemporary music and jazz. I had wanted cellist Erik Friedlander, but he wasn't available. One of the most respected jazz drummers suggested: "You should take Mat - he's truly special". I called Mat, he came, and that is how our collaboration began, through the reimagining of Enescu's music. That concert was recorded live and later released by Sunnyside Records. It's quite a fascinating album - captured live at the Small Hall of the Palace Hall, with no multitrack recording, no post-production mixing, and featuring my arrangement of Enescu's Sonata No. 3for violin and piano. I arranged it so that the viola and the piano would improvise before the whole group joined in. The ensemble included Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Gerald Cleaver (drums), John Hébert (bass), Albrecht Maurer from Germany (violin), and the legendary Indian percussionist Badal Roy, who worked with Miles Davis. We hadn't rehearsed that opening improvisation at all - so what you hear on the album is the first time Mat and I ever played together. I remember the moment after the concert ended - we looked at each other and said: "We need to play together again". The chemistry was there from the start. Since then, we've collaborated on many projects. We've worked with experimental British saxophonist Evan Parker; we've recorded our first duo album for ECM Records live at the opera house in Târgu Mureș; and we've performed with Mat's microtonal quartet - the Mat Maneri Quartet. Ten years after our first meeting, we managed to reorchestrate Enescu's opera Oedipe for an ensemble of eight musicians - six players and two vocalists - which premiered at the opera in Lyon and later in Paris. There's an album for that too. For me and Mat, it's an extraordinary musical chemistry - and now, a human connection too. After touring the world together for so many years, we've become very close. Mat is truly special. He emerged on the jazz scene in the mid-90s and was immediately recognized as a unique musician. He reshaped the viola's role with techniques that make him sound closer to a saxophone or trumpet than to a violin. He's now considered one of the major jazz improvisers of the past decades, archived by the Library of Congress in the U.S., and hailed by the Wall Street Journal as a "jazz viola virtuoso". His sound is singular, creative - and it is a privilege to share the stage with him.

You also introduced him to Enescu, to Bartók, and to the folk songs that Bartók collected.

That's right. His father was the renowned microtonal composer and saxophonist Joe Maneri. Mat told me that at home, his father would host musical evenings where he played Greek laments and Sephardic music from Eastern Europe. So Mat was somewhat familiar with this sound world, though not directly immersed in the specific folk traditions of Transylvania. Still, Mat has been performing in Romania for over a decade - starting with that Enescu Festival in 2009. He's played in large and small cities alike - Sighetu Marmației, Oradea, Brăila, to name a few.

So you had fertile ground for what you introduced him to. Before we wrap up, I'd like to ask about what's next. You mentioned earlier, I think even on air, that you have a new album coming out with John Surman - actually two albums? Could you tell us a bit about those?

Yes, in early September, the American label Sunnyside Records will release a double: a CD and a vinyl LP. After we recorded Transylvanian Folk Songs with John Surman in 2018 - which was released in 2020 - once the pandemic subsided, we were lucky to be invited to several prestigious European festivals: Berlin Jazz Festival, Strasbourg's Jazzdor, the New Music Week in Switzerland, festivals in Budapest, and many more. Some of those performances were recorded and will be released as a CD titled Canticum Profana. Aside from this, our trio with John Surman performed at the Romanian Athenaeum as part of the Athenaeum Summer Festival last year. That concert was recorded and then released exclusively on vinyl, titled The Athenaeum Concert - it featured me, John Surman, and Mat Maneri. The back cover included a facsimile of one of Bartók's handwritten transcriptions, in which you can read the lyrics in Romanian. Clearly, someone was heartbroken, because you can see: "May sorrow find you, may sorrow reach you".

Thank you very much, Lucian Ban. Let's remind our listeners: tomorrow's concert at the Athenaeum, starting at 7:00 PM, is nearly sold out.

Yes. We'll be celebrating the launch of the Transylvania Dance album, and we hope to see as many of our fans from Bucharest as possible.

And we hope to have you back here at Radio România Muzical again soon.

Anytime. It's always a great pleasure to be here.