Violinist and violist Mat Maneri and Lucian Ban, Romanian-born pianist living in New York, will hold a concert in Cluj-Napoca once again. This time, they will present their new album entitled DUST, together with bassist John Hébert and drummer Randy Peterson. The concert will take place on Sunday, November 14, at 7 pm in the Studio Hall of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj.

Violist Mat Maneri envisages his music as one of activity in stasis, or motion within stillness. His music continues from the lineage of master improvisers Paul Bley and Paul Motian with a sound that is distinctly his own.

Maneri's new recording, DUST, showcases his stirring playing alongside an ensemble of communicative and exploratory musicians.  Released late 2019 by Sunnyside Records DUST features Maneri’s stunning original music in a program of open-ended compositions that showcase his unique marriage of jazz and microtonal music, and has won instant critical acclaim in The Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, Jazz Times, All About Jazz, etc.

Over more than a quarter century career Mat Maneri has defined the voice of the viola and violin in jazz and improvised music. Born in Brooklyn in 1969, Maneri has established an international reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation, praised for his high degree of individualism, and his work with 20th century icons of improvised music. Over the course of his career, Maneri has worked with 20th century icons of improvised music including his father Joe Maneri, Cecil Taylor, Tim Berne, William Parker, Craig Taborn and many others.

The ensemble features Maneri’s longest collaborator, drummer Randy Peterson, with whom he has been playing since the late 1980s in Boston and with whom he has a near telepathic musical connection. Pianist Lucian Ban has been a close associate for the past decade and an important springboard for ideas. The ensemble needed just the right bass player to balance it out and John Hébert fit perfectly.

Mat Maneri and Lucian Ban first worked together in 2009 on Enesco Re-Imagined, a third stream extravaganza that was dedicated to the music of the great Romanian composer George Enesco.  The album was recognized by several in the media as one of the top albums of that year. JazzTimes wrote “Enesco Re-Imagined is visionary third-stream music.” Maneri and Ban’s duo, Transylvanian Concert, released by ECM in 2013 won critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, including several best of the year lists.  The Guardian noted Transylvanian Concert’s “Own kind of melancholy beauty and wayward exuberance”, and The New York Times called it “a lovely and restive new album,” while AllAboutJazz.com hailed its “Moments of unanticipated beauty.”

Tickets for the concert can be purchased in the theatre’s ticket office (weekdays between 10 am and 2 pm), as well as online, at www.biletmaster.ro.