Irina
I was born in Bucharest on the 25th of July 1983. At the age of five I started taking piano lessons. At the age of seven I started attending a normal school and all the children were laughing at me because I never had the time to play with them for I had to practice my instrument. In the 5th grade I went to the bilingual “George Cosbuc” highschool. In the 6th grade I began singing in the Voces Primavera girl choir. Doing all these things while continuing to study the piano was very hard but now I know it was worth it. At the age of 15 I started attending the “George Enescu” Music Highschool in Bucharest in Gabriela Enasescu’s piano class. I graduated in 2002. It was time for College so in the fall of 2002 I found myself being a student at Bucharest’s National University of Dramatic Art and Cinematography “I. L. Caragiale” in the acting section. Those years were very happy for me but, unfortunately, passed very quickly. I learned a lot there and remained with warm memories and a lot of good friends. In June 2006 I graduated from George Ivascu and Doru Ana’s acting class with the role of Master of ceremony in the musical “Two Orphans” at the Casandra Theatre. The show was awarded with the Best Play Prize at the UNATC Gala. With this role I myself was awarded the Special Jury Prize and the Debut Prize. I am currently colaborating with several theatres in Bucharest.
How I started to sing jazz
My classmate at the “George Enescu” highschool was pianist and composer Andrei Tudor, a wonderful musician. “I’m listening to jazz” he used to tell me, his earphones on his ears all the time. I didn’t know much about that music then so I didn’t pay much attention to him. But, curiously, I asked him to play some for me. From that moment on I fell in love with JAZZ and started to learn much more about it. Soon, I started performing with him as a duo, voice and piano. Our performance together was awarded with the Debut Prize at the Jazz Prizes Gala in February 2004. I started meeting people and artists who were playing a lot of jazz in Bucharest. Marius Popp, Puiu Pascu, Sorin Romanescu, Sorin Terinte, Mircea Tiberian, Petrica Andrei, Marius Mihalache, Arthur Balogh, Pedro Negrescu, Virgil Popescu, Alin Constantiu, Eugen Nichiteanu, Ciprian and Tudor Parghel are just a few of the people who helped me grow as a jazz singer and as an artist. I performed in all the jazz clubs in Bucharest, also in a lot of other romanian cities, important festivals and events. A great moment in my life was when I met jazz singer Anca Parghel who was my teacher and good friend and from which I learned a lot. I thank her every day for that… Another important moment was when I met Marius Mihalache who trusted me and invited me to release an album together – “World Symphony” (2007). One day I was asked how could I managed to do so many things in so little time. I answered “with love, ambition, pleasure…and a little bit of luck”.