Exclusive interview with Henry Ernst the manager of Fanfara Ciocarlia about 2013 USA Tour

World wide famous Fanfara Ciocarlia will be back on a USA Tour this summer. The upcoming Fanfare Ciocarlia North America tour, which runs from July 4th until July 27th, and is set to bring the fastest and loudest gypsy brass band from the far far east back to the US and Canada.
It's manager Henry Ernst gave me an exclusive interview with more details about this year's tour.
 
Why another concert this year in USA?

The answer is very simply: The last North American tour in September 2012 has been a huge success for Fanfare Ciocarlia. After having a break for more than 9 years the band's come back to the US has been celebrated with 5 sold out shows from Pittsburgh, New York City, Durham, Minneapolis to Chicago. Reason enough to think about planning a much larger tour across the entire country. And here we are: 16 shows in the US and 4 shows in Canada in July 2013!
We are very happy to present the heavy monster sound of Romania's brass Legends on main stages of high-profile music festivals like Festival International De Jazz in Montreal, SummerStage at Central Park New York City, Grand Performances in Los Angeles and Stern Groove Festival in San Francisco. But our preference and favorite child are the shows at club stages on which we are very close to the audience. This is a very special feeling for us and all the  vibes from the audience reach us promptly on stage. Very very special for us! The more we are happy top announce the show at Martyrs on July 11th and we hope we will perform at full house again.

How was the tour last year in USA?

Returning on the continent after such a long break is an exciting thing. Of course we were nervous and we often asked ourself if all our American fans still know and adore us. Or whether we have become old fashion? The more we were pleased to play to packed venues and to see all enthusiasm people in front of stage. A very nice experience indeed!
Also the country has changed enormously in the last decade and it was interesting to see all the visible changes during our long drives along the east coast. All only have great and value memories of our last trip to the US and we are happy being back soon again!

What about the concert tour in Romania this year?

A very beautiful and at the same time a very exhausting experience. We have performed in the last 16 years a few select concerts in Romania only. Sala Palatului in 2006 with our huge stage project called "The Gypsy Queens and Kings", 2 or 3 times we have performed at TIFF in Sibiu and in Cluj Napoca. But never we did an entire tour trough the country. We were just curious, how it would be doing a complete tour through Romania and so we did. 7 shows day by day - smaller venues and big stages too. The greatest moments we shared with the crowd in Bucharest, Cluj and Sibiu. Packed venues and a frentic audiences - just like we are used to have in Western countries. Amazing! On the other hand we have learned that a large part of Romanian local promoters don't have any clue about promoting a show in a creative, modern and professional way. They simply have to learn a lot....The fact that Romania is missing a highway throughout the country is also a huge minus and a very tough situation while doing more than 400 - 500 km per day. Man: 12 hours just for 500 km???? Jesus Christ - after 20 years "building a highway"........
All in all it was a great adventure and we think about repeating and building up a larger Romanian tour next year.
Fanfara Ciocarlia Introduced by no other than Sarah Jessica Parker

What other cities/states would you go while in USA?

Well our tour looks like this:

04.07.2013	Montreal - QC (CA)	Festival International de Jazz de Montreal
05.07.2013	Toronto - ON (CA)	The Opera House TICKETS?
06.07.2013	London - ON (CA)	Sunfest
07.07.2013	London - ON (CA)	Sunfest
10.07.2013	Cleveland - OH (US)	The Cleveland Museum Of Arts
11.07.2013	Chicago - IL (US)	Martyrs TICKETS?
12.07.2013	Chicago - IL (US)	Summer Dance Festival
13.07.2013	Pittsburgh - PA (US)	Rex Theatre TICKETS?
14.07.2013	New York City (US)	Summerstage at Central Park
16.07.2013	Washington - DC (US)	Kennedy Center
17.07.2013	Albuquerque - NM (US)	The Dirty Bourbon TICKETS?
18.07.2013	Phoenix - AZ (US)	Musical Instrument Museum
19.07.2013	Los Angeles - CA (US)	Grand Performances
20.07.2013	Santa Cruz - CA (US)	Moe's Alley TICKETS?
21.07.2013	San Francisco - CA (US)	Stern Groove Festival
23.07.2013	Portland - OR (US)	The Alberta Rose Theatre TICKETS?
24.07.2013	Seattle WA (US)	The Triple Door TICKETS?
25.07.2013	Calgary - AB (CA)	Calgary Folk Music Festival
26.07.2013	Calgary - AB (CA)	Calgary Folk Music Festival

We'll finish our July adventure in Bristol UK - performing the legendary WOMAD festival.

Any new CD/ album with Fanfara Ciocarlia?

We have spent the last 3 years with touring worldwide. Not much time left for thinking about a new album and new material. But we have reserved fall 2013 for a creative period and we are determined to start working on a new Fanfare Ciocarlia album. We have great idea for a conecpt - but this will still remain our secret. However we promise: we will be back in 2014 with a new album full of brass madness, power and wild moments!

Any other projects  that you are involved in lately ?!

Well - at the moment we are touring our Balkan Brass Battle show throughout Europe together with Romania's Mahala Rai Banda. And we just finished mixing the album of Canadian guitar player Adrian Raso we have recorded together last September in Toronto. This will be a fine piece of demonstration that guitars, Gypsy Swing and old Jazz Manoush style fits perfectly our brass attitude. Keep your eyes and ears open for the album release beginning of 2014!


Last but not least: We have a Facebook page too and we are happy to receiving your LIKE!
See you all in Chicago and let's do a night people are talking about!

Fanfare Ciocarlia on the web:

www.fanfare-ciocarlia.com
facebook.com/FanfareCiocarlia
myspace.com/FanfareCiocarlia