Alex Simu

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Alex Simu (2020)

Alexandru Florin "Alex" Simu (born September 20, 1981 in Bucharest ) is a Romanian jazz musician ( clarinets , soprano , alto , tenor and baritone saxophone , composition ).

Live and act

Simu, who has played jazz and world music since 1999 and was already working as a studio musician in his home country, moved to the Netherlands at the age of 22, where he completed his bachelor's degree at the Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen. In 2009 he completed the master's degree in jazz saxophone at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam after a year abroad at the Manhattan School of Music in New York.

In 2009 Simu was a member of the European Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Peter Herbolzheimer . Together with Franz von Chossy and Sjahin During , he founded the world jazz band Arifa in 2010 . Their debut album Beyond Babylon was released that same year, followed by Anatolian Alchemy in 2012; Both albums were named “best world music release of the year” in the Netherlands and rated 5 stars in various specialist magazines. In 2019 he released his debut album with his own quintet under his own name, Echoes of Bucharest , which he also presented internationally; his original compositions are largely based on folklore themes by George Enescu and Dimitrie Cantemir . In the same year Sunnyside Communications released the duo album Free Fall , which he recorded with the Romanian pianist Lucian Ban in reminiscence of Jimmy Giuffre . He was also involved in Simin Tander's album Where Water Travels Home .

Simu has been working as a main subject teacher at Codarts Hogeschool voor de kunsten in Rotterdam since 2015 in the fields of jazz and world music.

Prizes and awards

In 2008 Simu won first prize in the Utrecht Holland Casino Jazz Contest . In the same year he won first prize in the Dutch jazz competition at the North Sea Jazz Festival . In 2009 he was awarded the EBU Jazz Scholarship. In 2016 he was awarded the Dutch Gouden Kalf Film Prize in the category “best film music” for his score for the film Beyond Sleep (by Boudewijn Koole ) .

Web links

Commons : Alex Simu  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Report from the Conservatory
  2. ↑ Meeting (Fono forum)
personal data
SURNAME Simu, Alex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simu, Alexandriu Florin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian jazz musician (clarinets, saxophones, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH 20th September 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH Bucharest