Professional Documents
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Cristian Alexandru Minculescu
Cristian Alexandru Minculescu
whose family moved throughout the country, due to his father who was working in the
Finance and used to change his post frequently: Pitesti, Craiova, Bucuresti; he had friends
everywhere and they used to listen to the disks which were rarities for the teens of his
age. The young man was keen on listening to Free, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Queen
and Black Sabbath-he soon started to pay attention to the vocal parts and thus to
appreciate very each timbre but classifying Led Zeppelin on the first place and Freddie
Mercury as the best vocalist. And yet he didnt have models, only idols that he merely
looked up to without trying to imitate. C. M believes he inherited his voice from his
mother who was a choir singer at the Monastery of Bistrita near Ramnicu Valcea.
When he was about 15-16, Cristi moved permanently in Bucharest but his childhood
town Craiova lasted deep in his heart and the local football team Universitatea Craiova
has always been one oh his great passions his only flaw as his friend says, C. M,. F.
Filips husband.
Cristi is a lovely father and husband. When he was not on tour or in his recording
studio, he spent his time home with his family. I think Rodicas great love for him is
proportionally due to the way he treated her and the children. the former footballer Ilie
Balaci says, a close friend of their family.
Cristi describes Rodica as his guardian angel sent by God in order to save him: I have
always said that God is a friend of mine, that Hes a Minculescus fan, for he chose to
save me through Rodi. But paradoxically Im not easy to get friendly with someone, I
dont communicate immediatelyand with Rodi all that was different. Our love was at
lighting power and it still is! Einstein said that we pass through the time not the opposite.
That was what Rodi and I did.
His parents noticed their sons passion for music, his collegues and teachers knew that the
rebel was on his way. When he was still in high school, he found out the members from
Harap-Alb needed a vocalist. He had nothing to lose and decided to attend a rehearsal. He
sang at the beginning some classic rocknrolls and then the real test: Free-All right now,
Led Zeppelin-Communication breakdown, Deep Purple-Black night Hes good they
thought, welcome in our band He contributed to the making of some songs like HarapAlb, In calea norilor, Tu doar tu, Vei veni. Minculescu remained in that band until the jan.
1980 when Anton H presented him to the members of Iris who needed a vocalist.
On the 9th of jan, exactly on his birthday, Cristi took his great examination and was
accepted. His performance at that first rehearsal would prove that he was the one who Iris
needed, the best voice of the Romanian Rock. The date of the 5th Feb 1980 got in the
history of the Romanian music, for he had for the first time a concert as an Iris member
and the public heard for the first time the famous greeting Good evening friends.
At the end of the year 1981, Saptamana magazine which used to have one of the best
tops in the communist press, nominated C. M. as the best vocal solist of that year.
In 1982, Cristi left Iris with the guitarist Adrian, Adi and set up The band Voltaj. Their
first song, Nori de hartie was on the poster of their first concert that took place at the
Cultural House Mihai Eminescu in Bucharest. In 1984 C. M. sang in the band Totusi in
the literary circle Flacara, with Andrei and Ioana Paunescu. The song Trenul fara nas
lasts from that period, song of which lyrics were written bi A. Paunescu.
As member of Iris, he released the album Iris 1, the first album of heavy metal in
Romania. As it was released, Cristi M. celebrated 4 years of music with Iris. In 1987 they
released the album Iris 2 of which cover was extraordinarily daring for those times-it
illustrates Angus Young playing the guitar, one of Cristis heroes- and in 1988 they
released another album called Nut e opri (Dont stop) that includes the famous song
Floare de Iris (Iris Flower) composed as a manifestation of their fears that the band
would be forbidden. In 1990 and 1993 he recorded another two albums and in 1992
having Cristi Minculescu as their vocalist the band Iris won the second place at the
festival of Cannes, at the rock section-it was the first Romanian band that appeared on the
famous MTV. In 1996 they released the album Luna Plina (Full moon) where even
soprano Felicia Filip contributed signing with C. M the song Baby. The incredible duo
formed by Felicia Filip and C. M. was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Their
meeting was predestined as also the meeting of Freddie Mercury and Monserat Caballe
was. One year later Cristi was singing with Iris at the celebration of 20 years since the
band appeared and they released the first live album ever recorded as a CD format. In
1998, the album Mirage is awarded with the prize for the best rock album of the year.
The year 2000 encompassed the release of a new album called Iris 2000 but also the
release on a double CD of the concert Iris Anthaenum at the Palace Hall and even on
DVD (in 2001) Iris Digital Anthaenum is the first DVD of a Romanian band
Cristi loved the way his collaboration ith the soprano F.F. did take shape: At the first
rehearsal it seemed as if we had been singing for a long time together. Mrs. Felicia Filip
proved, from the early beginning that she had a great team spirit. At the rehearsals she
didnt come just to sing and then to leave. She came from the beginning and used to stay
until the end and paradoxically she was the one who stimuated us. We wanted to prove
that even in our country we could make collaborations between a rock band and a great
Opera performer.
In 2002 the band celebrated 25 years of career that had included collaborations with Mick
Box and Bernie Shaw, the members of the British band Uriah Heep. On that occasion
Cristi sang with them Lady in black, the lyrics in two languages: Romanian and English.
In 2003 they released I.R.I.S. 4MOTION, a box-set of four CDs. Each initial is assigned
to a member and Cristi is called The Sentimental one.On this project, Cristi and the band
checked another first time in the Romanian music industry, namely the first quadruple
album.
After the release of the album called Maxima in 2005, Cristi sang with Iris at the opening
of the Rolling Stones concert in 2007, and on October the 5th he celebrated with Iris, the
30-year career, and they released a double CD entitled Cei ce vor fi(Those who will be).
On October 6 Cristi and his colleagues were decorated with the Order of Cultural Merit
Knight for promoting rock music for thirty years.
After six months of absence, Cristi returned on stage after he suffered a surgery,at the
concert in Simleul Silvaniei in Salaj, on July the 18th 2009 .And on October the 8th 2009
Cristi Minculescu and Iris supported a concert of returning at the Polyvalent Hall in
Bucharest in front of over 7000 fans.
The year 2010 represented another big success: on the 16th he cocertized at the opening of
the show AC/DC in Bucharest and on the 21th of November he performed in public at the
Palace Hall to promote the new album Iris; the next year The band and Cristi sang at the
opening of Alice Cooper concert in Bucharest.
In 2012 the band celebrates 35 years of activity in a concert in the Constitution Square.
That year brought also sad news for the band and its fans: Cristi leaves the band and sings
in his last concert on the 2nd of September in Bontida
For Christmas, Cristi offered to his fans a balad sung with Paula Seling entitled Lumi
Paralele (Parallel Worlds) and soon the first rumors about his new and started to come
about: My team mates are very good instrumentalists and all of them are Music teachers.
I am the only Romanian. We should have called ourselves Europa, but the Swedish were
faster. That because the girl is a naturalized Portuguese, the bass-singer is Ukrainian and
the drummer a naturalized Italian. The only true-born, German is the guitarist. Anton
Judy Seutter is his name. ( C M in a interview accorded to the Ra dio post Rock FM)
C M performed with the band guitarist in December the first concerts in Romania on
mini-tour called History of Rock in 90 minutes in Sibiu, Bucharest, Brasov and
Constanta. And in the New Years Eve his fans could see the whole band. The singer
recorded the first few songs after the break-up with Iris and The 3 songs chosen as
representative are: Kingdom Of Dreams" , Mama Don't Allow" and the famous Strada
ta (Your Street)