Photo: Mihai Turculet (photos taken on film, Cristofor’s desire to bring back the feel from old / analogue pictures)
Cristofor Aldea Teodorovici is a winning combination of modesty, kindness and ambition. He hardly agrees to do an interview. He “dodges” questions that bother him since he was 10 years old. He is the artist who floats on two ships. On one of them, he continues the work that his parents started, and on another, he pursues his own dream. He recently became a father, and his wife, Iana, a painter and professional designer, by offering him this gift, drew him the most beautiful horizon he ever imagined. He enjoys the days spent together and his heart melts for Doina, his sweetheart.
In an hour, Cristofor has to go to rehearse with the orchestra, and his phone is ringing constantly interrupting our interview. Please put your smartphone on silent and read this interview in one go.
Inevitably, the first question is about the new arrival in your life – you recently became a father… how has your world changed?
A transition from sadness to joy. The memory of my parents and the fact that I failed to dedicate more time to my ego or, rather, to my creation until the age of 38 absorbed me, my indecision brought me to an inner outburst and were a grain of tumult and depression. I thought I would not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I used to say that I fail both at giving a fresh impetus to my parents’ music, and to make music as well, because I have always been divided between these two boats. And the rescue came at the end of 2019, when we found out we were going to have a baby girl!
She looks a lot like my father, the chin, the forehead, the nose, but the eyes are like Iana’s and a little bit looks like her grandmother Doina. I think that along the way we will see reflections on her face from the whole family. She, Doina, was and is a kind of power of mine, because she channeled all my thoughts and love, all those indecisions were absorbed in the earth and this grain of person appeared. When you look into her eyes, you get the impression that the sun is rising in our house. In the morning, when she smiles at me, I melt more than any metal, no matter how hard it is.
Despite the difficulties of life, I try not to wish you health, because if you do not take care of this „armor” called body throughout life, no one will help you, no matter how much health people wish you. On the other hand, I will better wish you, as well as to my daughter, when I read the “Lord’s Prayer” to her every day, to love people indefinitely, to adore humanity, to spread love, but also to know and receive it. Love is probably the solution for a healthy life.
The child changes everything...
When she is not with me, I feel that I miss her; she has somehow become part of me. From the moment she was born it is a bit hard to work, she wants our full attention. The longing for her is getting bigger every day. I admit, I did not really want to have children, I was afraid of going through the moments that I had. When I was little, I was deeply marked by certain phrases, discussions, harshly spoken and perhaps exaggerated remarks by those around me. It is natural to get angry with capricious or disobedient children, but it is important to remember that any word spoken with malice, we being angry at some silly thing, may haunt the child all his/her life.
I often thought about how I would raise my child. How will my wife or I manage not to upset the child who would later remember in frustration maybe for years.
Ever since Doina appeared, have you contradicted yourself?
Sometimes this feeling persists, but I simply adore her, I love her endlessly. I realize that I still want children and I have a lot of love for them. Although, now, all the love is channeled towards Doina and Iana.
Now that you have everything you want, what does family mean to you?
It is like these joys of the morning, when you wake up with your loved one by your side. You seem to know that there are other women in the world, but when you think of yours, you appreciate most the love that awaits you at home. I really appreciate the mornings when we go to the market together to buy tomatoes, peppers, or the evenings at the theater or cinema. Now there are three of us and I finally understand the joy of the children in the house! It is fantastic! When we both look at Doina, I often say: “Even now I can’t believe that this golden ball is created by the two of us”. It is the fruit of love, just like is written in books.
What unites you and Iana? What do you have in common?
She is a painter and designer/illustrator. From the very beginning, the music, the discussions on art, universal literature, and photography brought us together. One of Iana’s passions is the Romanian royal family. She has been studying the life of Queen Maria for several years and she has transmitted this passion to me as well. I could say that we are both passionate about cooking, the culture of coffee – especially the preparation and consumption of coffee from specific regions of the world, a more artisanal culture that has been called the “third wave of coffee”. We are also passionate about appetizers, raw champagne, wines and Gin-Tonic culture that use in contemporary trends the term of “botanicals” which includes herbs, fruits, vegetables and spices. And, of course, we are passionate about French culture. For a few years, I travelled every August across the Provence region of France. I miss this country very much; since I did some music studies and lived there for a few years. At home, we have only one satellite TV channel – Arte TV ... and this one is French. And this is exactly where our interests, culture, gastronomy, art and the films of the European “nouvelle vague” from the 60s and 70s are included.
You said Iana is a painter. Did she make a portrait of you?
She tried to, but she is always modest and self-critical. It is a sketch we will come back to. Iana has a lot of talent, although during this period she paints less. Doina does not really allow her to work.
What is your ultimate dream?
I dream of bringing back to life the entire archive of my father’s unrealized notes. To make it present internationally in theaters, concert halls, philharmonics – his symphonic pieces of music. I aspire to reach his level as an orchestrator and composer. I would like to have at least 5-6 children. I think everything is quite achievable; the important thing is to really want it. By the way, in 2004, I had a notebook where I wrote ten things that I want to accomplish in the next 10 years and, over time, I somehow lost it, but I found it in 2014. It was written there that I want to have an orchestra of at least 15 people and so it was. I also wrote there that I want to speak French fluently and that happened. In that notebook, I also found the desire to have a child, a family. All these are done, even if I achieved the last point later, after six years. I have read somewhere that it is good to write down your goals and objectives with a pen, because they are automatically impregnated in the brain and, looking at me as an example, all these dreams have come true.
How do you think, how many doors are in stage and in real life?
My doors all open and they are all under the same roof. I come to perceive that the doors disappear and everything is in the same room. First, I am involved in several musical styles – pop-dramatic, film music, soul-disco, house, folk. Some of them being quite remote as public and contingent. For example, I am one man when it comes to disco clubs /parties, and another man when I am on the big stage. In addition to this, I do a bit of DJ-ing. Over the years, among the multitude of parties, I remember when here, in Chisinau, I sang live techno house music with my colleagues for about two hours, and then I mixed as a DJ for another five or six hours. In general, the culture of club music represents me and I am always studying it. Whether it has jazz, soul, Brazilian influences, club music makes you dance, and I always look for that state of transcendence and meditation. This is where I feel most in my element. In the club, I can entertain people for hours without getting tired for a moment. It even seems like we charge each other with energy.
Do you sometimes cry for happiness? When was the last time you cried?
I am quite emotional ... even when Nicolae Jelescu recites I can cry. When we were together in America, I often had a knot in my throat when he was reciting from Vieru or Sorescu. But I cried with joy when Doina was born. We did not want to give her the name of Doina, because we did not want her to have a direct connection with my mother. It is like a second Doina Aldea Teodorovici. We did not want the weight of my parents’ memory to fall on her shoulders. I do not want the same expectations that people had of me, which was the suffering of my life, the fact that they wanted me to be their continuation, and I wanted to be a man who spreads love in his own way. For about four days, we were undecided about the name, but Iana said to name her Doina and so it remained. I hope people to be more lenient with her. I received about twenty thousand messages in which several persons wrote to me that she had to be the next Doina who will sing about the country and the nation. I pray every night over her head to have a lot of love for people and to give love in whatever direction she would like. It is important for her to do what she will enjoy to do.
What does your inner child say when your baby is born? I mean the yesterday’s and today’s child...
With the arrival of the new member in our family, I remembered a lot from my childhood and I immersed myself in my father’s music archive. There I discovered some songs for children. I fondly remembered how I sang them when I was little. I also found an interesting song “Cu-cu-ri-gu”. It seems like a nice thing to me and I will try to do that with my children too, to take them to the studios, to rehearsals, to concerts, because, as a child, you feel so mature when you attend everything, and you are aware with everything your parents do. It seemed an incredible thing to me when my mother took me to the “Ion Creanga” University and taught ... I had the impression that I was part of that setting, that I also was teaching. I was even more proud when I went with them to the recording studio, concerts. It was a period of involvement of a child in the creative process of parents. It is great to think you are a big kid when you are a little kid.
As a child, did you have the feeling that you would sing?
No, not at all, I was very shy. As a child, I wanted to become a cosmonaut, a veterinarian; this love has remained with me to present days. I have a bunch of dogs at home, I also had a parrot, but unfortunately, it flew away..
Thanks to the fact that you were the son of a legendary couple, did you have connections at school? Did you feel more special?
You know, when I had good grades, I had good one, when they were bad ... they were bad. Probably some teachers tried to push this thing. I was a shy and good child. Sometimes I did not even want to be perceived as a special child. If in Jewish communities it is customary to tell the child that he is the best, even if it is not true, my grandmother always instilled in me that “you are like the others”. Unfortunately, there was not much praise in our family, so we did not excel in ego and arrogance.
And yet, did your parents’ name, Aldea Teodorovici, help you or make you feel shady at times?
I refused for a long time to give further interviews because of this question. It is hard to have such a large baggage of music plays that you know are left by your father. In the shade of large trees, the grass does not grow much, although I try to grow, to reach at least part of the height of the trees that raised me.
The fact that I am the son of the couple Ion and Doina Aldea Teodorovici gave me wings to fly, educated me, I inherited the spirituality of their creation, but, at the same time, it strangles me, because I want to see my creation, I feel a lot of love that I want to share it as my parents did. I am not trying to get to their level, but I am trying my way to get to the sun. This whole cavalcade is a little complicated. They have done so much that so far I have not been able to discover all their music plays. You have to have a special talent to handle them all, and at the same time to take care of your parents’ memory, but also to do what you want.
Have you always wanted to please your parents’ listeners? You wanted to not disappoint and keep those values. Are you doing what you love now, have you reached that compromise with yourself?
Yes and no. Probably, for many art people, it is a normal thing to have doubts. Now I have moments when I realize that I would have liked to be a good pianist, orchestra conductor or good guitarist. Unfortunately, I am a part of everything, but without peaks. I always remember the words of the great composer Michel Legrand, who said: “I learned to play all the instruments, so that the orchestration would come out better”. This way is much easier for me with my pop music orchestra.
Do you think that your advantage is modesty?
That is how I was raised; maybe there was too much common sense in our family.
At 10, you remained with your grandparents. How were those times for you?
They were hard. That formed a kind of double personality within me. Of course, I love them very much, I thank them and I am grateful that they did not leave me at the orphanage. My grandfather, unfortunately, is no longer alive, but it is a different thing to hold grandparents’ hand and to hold your parents’ hand, so I insist that parents, however difficult it may be, take their children to their workplaces, so that they are more time together. I cannot speak differently about grandparents and parents when it comes to education, because ... look at how my mother was educated. Nevertheless, I missed that father-son relationship, to go to the studio together, to talk. Well, I have always been mommy’s boy, but when my father and I were just becoming friends, I lost him.
Do you think you are a happy man now?
Happiness is a subjective concept, but I am optimistic. When I am in the club or with Doina in my arms, I am happy, then I disconnect completely. Otherwise, everything is subjective.