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Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: Dana Codorean Berciu
Location: London
Instruments: Voice
Music: Romanian folk / world fusion / klezmer
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 ÌýÌýListen (01'21) to Dana Codorean Berciu sing 'Frica Mi-e'
'Romania is with me when ever I sing my songs, even if I whisper them to the flowers in my balcony, I feel the better for it.'
How I came to this music:
Growing up in Cluj, the capital city of Transylvania I learned my singing from my mother, an amateur singer. Both my parents loved to attend live performances so my sister and I were always encouraged
to sing. We competed in national and local folk music competitions right up to our teens.
Our holidays were spent at my Grandmother's country village. Every weekend there'd be a big dance - the community's reward after a week of toiling in the fields. Every rural village would compete to get the best live band. In time, as Ceausescu developed Romanian industry, most villagers migrated to the cities and the big balls happen less frequently now.
 Authentic peasant music, especially the roots music from Maramures in the North East of Transylvania is what really fires me. I've also been influenced by Maria Tanase, the renowned Romanian singer and collector of old folk music. She used to play with a virtuoso violinist, a friend of mine from Transylvania, 'Jojicã' Iosif Ghemant. I remember Jojicã telling how this great singer, our national treasure, would go to the river to wash the gypsies' shirts to make sure they'd be clean for the concerts.
By the time I was 18, I decided to study fine art and pursued my career as an artist and art teacher. I also got married and had a son. It wasn't until I moved to London in 1991 to join my husband who had defected a few years previously that I took up music again. My heart ached for Romania so I started singing again as it was the only way to help me express my longing for home. Now Romania is always with me, even if I just whisper the songs it to the flowers in my balcony.
In 1992 I joined Dunav, a Balkan music band which has been on the go for the past forty years. Then I met Mukka, a troupe of musicians much younger than me but somehow my Romanian ballads complement their East-European cum Arabic dance repertoire. We're a bit like a ratatouille with all the flavours and herbs coming together to capture a feeling of the best in each and every culture which we then filter and reinterpret according to our own sound experiences.
Where I play:
With Mukka I play all over the country and in Ireland at festivals like Glastonbury, Waterford, Meltdown, and The Larmer Tree. We even played Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Jubilee. I also play at lots of Romanian events in London, both with Dunav and in my own capacity and of course I love to sing at home.
A favourite song:
One of my favourite songs is "Frica Mi-e". It's a doina which is usually a love song that describes deep emotions in melodic lines that are melancholic yet sometimes joyfully rebellious. Once the rhythm comes, it puts your body on fire and your mind explodes. All you can possibly do is dance or cry. "Frica Mi-e" sings of the fear a person has at the prospects of dying combined with a longing to be able to see their lover once more. It's a paradoxical bitter-sweet situation about love and death.
I also love "Cine Iubeste Si Lasa" which I perform with Mukka. Again it's a doina which is a curse song damning a lover whose gone off with someone else but I've changed the curse and ask God not to punish the lover. I'm more mature now that I'm nearly fifty. My husband has sadly passed away and I've had my fair share of life experiences which infuse my singing with greater truth and power.
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