Photo: David Cowles-Hamar

Arrivederci Romania

Romanian Street Musicians
in Rome

When I came to Rome in September 2000 I was struck by the huge number of Romanian and Romanian gypsy street musicians that had appeared since my first trip in 1995. In July 2002, I invited my friend Maria Craciun of the University of Cluj--normally a scholar of Saints' cults in Transylvanian polyptych altar art--to spend 8 nights helping me interview musicians and video-document performances in an effort to understand this phenomenon. Another important discovery for Maria, submitting to Western decadence, was the Piña Colada.

During the regime of Ceausescu, Romanian music enjoyed an efflorescence; the national music was promoted, and the state sponsored a large number of music schools and venues. With the fall of communism and dire economic straits, many of the old performance opportunities disappeared, leaving a superabundance of well-trained and highly-talented performers, and triggering an underground diaspora of Romanian musicians to wealthier European cities. A familiar sight in Paris, Berlin, and Athens, the highest concentration seems to be in Rome, probably because Italy is both close, and its language is relatively easy for Romanians to learn.

The best professionals easily rival bands that have won international recognition, like those participating in the Gypsy Caravan Tour. Accordionist Tudor Dumitru (shown above) is perhaps the finest of the Romanian musicians in Rome, leading a protean group of players which changes nightly; they can earn a living from just a few hours at their favorite spot in the Piazza di Sant’Apollonia (Trastevere). Even amateur musicians, like Oltan, a laid-off factory worker from Craiova who now plays saxophone 12 hours a day, 7 days a week on the Ponte Sisto, can collect enough small change to support a large family back home. Some, especially professionals, are effectively seasonal migrant workers, taking the 24-hour bus trip from Bucharest once a year to profit from the high tourist season. Others, like Oltan, have become stranded in Rome without seeing their family for years.

Maria and I are working on a documentary from the material we collected. Click here for an MP3 of Tudor's band (the recording may not be used commercially).