Marius Mihalache

Marius Mihalache (born May 27, 1974, Bucharest), is a well-known musician, composer, maybe the best ţambal (cymbalo or dulcimer) player in the world.


Born in a Gypsy family with rich musical tradition (his great-great-grandfather was a dulcimer player, his grandfather was one the greatest violin player of the interwar period, his mother was a piano player), he started playing at 6 yo. As a child and teenager he played at Şarpele Roşu (The Red Snake), a restaurant famous as a meeting place for the Bucharest bohéme. He won at 10 (1985) the second prize at the International Festival in Athens, interpreting Rachmaninov and Chopin. In 1988 Mihalache won the first prize at the International Youth Festival in Paris (Rachmaninov, Chopin, Liszt). By 17, in 1991, Marius was already storming Scala in Milano performing Rahmaninov, Chopin, Schuman, Schubert and Mozart in front of a stunning audience. Marius Mihalache is graduate of the Faculty of Music of the University "Spiru Haret" and applied at Berkeley to study music and composition.


He shared same stage with Gloria Gaynor (1992, in Palermo) and Nina Simone (1993, in Rome), Teodora Enache, Ovidiu Lipan-Ţăndărică, among others. He toured in Italy, Spain, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, Holland, USA and others.


Marius writed some movies and tv soundtracks (Asfalt Tango, California Dreamin', Filantropica, The Bastards, La vie en rose) just before his debut album Eclipse in 1998, followed by others, all cult-albums from jazz to gypsy music, and of-course classical stuff (Roots, Performance, Ges Romano (Gypsy Life), La Passion, Best Years, Love and Fire, World Symphony).


Marius Mihalache - Jelem, jelem

Gypsy Life (Ges Romano) album includes music influences from Gypsies in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria, Spain and even Azerbaijan, which Mihalache collected during his project Gypsies in the Balkans. Late 2007, he released his latest production: World Symphony - a mixture of jazz, ethno, roots and lounge - this new musical experiment that amazingly mingles cembalo with flute, harmonica and solo-vocal of both beautiful and gifted Irina Sârbu, among others instruments. His latest project is named Ethnotize (ethno + hypnotize), a world-music masterpiece that includes DJ and black-music beats, all fusion, and ethno-jazz, of-course!


Marius Mihalache - Love of Corea

But his most important self-declared moment was the meeting with his mentor Chick Corea (1998), who offered him the honor of opening a few shows; Marius signed a 5-years contract with Time Concerts, one of the most important management agencies in US, and will release also an album together with his master. "At 17 years I have listened Chick Corea for the first time and the first impulse was to quit music. It was and is a God for me".


Marius Mihalache - Oci Ciornie

Get this experience at least once in a lifetime - see and listen Marius Mihalache!