When three years old, a little girl from a small village in Transylvania, the daughter of the priest, began to sing the Romanian soul blues. 

Every time when people came by, her father would lift her on the table and everybody would listen with tears in their eyes.

Still very young, she left the village to study music in the big city. After much

LONELINESS

she went as far as possible: soprano for baroque music, touring across Europe.

Graduated at Hochschule Musik und Theater Zürich, followed by contemporary music at Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. Member of Schweizer Opernstudio Biel and Opernhaus Biel-Solothurn. Specialized in ancient music at the Karlsruhe Händel International Academy. Performed with significant baroque music ensembles at Händel Festspielle Halle, Bayreuth Barock, Warsaw Philharmonic, Opernhaus Passau. Won the Prize of the Elsy Meyer Foundation in Zürich.

Many years later, when Mihai from ZMEI3 met her in Berlin, he didn't see in front of his eyes an opera singer. What he saw was a three-year old girl from a Transylvanian village, the daughter of the priest.

In the music of ZMEI3 she feels she’s finally home.

THE DAUGHTER OF THE PRIEST
Just like his father, Mihai Victor Iliescu was born under a dictatorship where the only

ESCAPE 
FROM 
REALITY

was in music and books. His father was a folk dancer, and taught him the wild melodies and rhythms of southern Romania. Then, still in the early years, Mihai learned classical guitar, while becoming very fond of the music of Bach and Tom Waits.

At 18 he went to law school, and became a lawyer. Later on he shifted to advertising, only to find another dead road. It was only the third time that he quit his corporate job – this time for good - packed all his things in the car and left to Berlin to become a musician.

Being an immigrant, looking back in anger, all this storm of feelings and permanent search for identity pushed him to create a new musical style: Rough Romanian Soul.

​This is how ZMEI3 was born.

THE ROUGH ROMANIAN SOUL​
Quiet. Helpful. Nice. But don't get confused, because

BEYOND 
THE
SURFACE

Oli Bott is a beast. He doesn't play nice. He doesn't play soft. He's the lead instrument of ZMEI3. He's got the vibe. He's a wizard spelling magic on every sound. With him the sound of ZMEI3 gained an amazing completeness and explosion of energy.

When the world-leading vibe player Gary Burton came to Germany to give a workshop, he asked Oli: “Tell me, do you want to be a postman?” “No. I want to be a musician.” “OK, then you come with me now to the US.” Gary Burton gave Oli a scholarship at Berklee, and his trust was soon rewarded: Oli finished in just two years, summa cum laude.

Since then he works as a freelance vibe player and composer in Berlin. He received several scholarships from the city of Berlin and composition commissions for his own jazz orchestra. Many of his concerts throughout Europe were recorded by TV and radio. He obtained awards at various international competitions such as the "NDR-Musikpreis" for big band conductors, the 1st prize at the Improvisation Competition in Leipzig, the Europ Jazz Contest and the Wayne Shorter Award, USA.

Still, he doesn’t think about himself as a jazz musician. But as a free musician.

THE BEAST
​
You feel it, right in your stomach.  The percussive, aggressive, obsessive bass of Arnulf Ballhorn. If we talk about

FULL
SOUND

then this is the man. In ZMEI3 he plays both double bass and electric bass in a simple and powerful style that concentrates all his mastery into pure energy.

Arnulf learned double bass at the University of Arts in Berlin, and later with Miroslav Vitous and Renaud García-Fons. With Gary Willis and Jonas Hellborg he learned electric bass. Since 2001 Arnulf plays at the much-acclaimed Komische Oper. He's very much into contemporary music, playing at many international festivals with the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, as well as tango and jazz with Vibratanghissimo and Per Arne Glorvigen Trio.

The custom builder of electric basses Andreas Kristall makes instruments following his specifications.

He owns his own label and record company, ballhorn-records, specializing in recordings made in special and unusual locations.

THE GENTLE GIANT

NELU

“I was born on 23 April 1948 in Bucharest, in a humble family of workers. We lived in a yard with several other families. In the summer, on a huge stone in front of our door, neighbours used to gather and played music. One had a harmonica, another a drum. One day, in the Christmas eve, my father asked me what do I wish. I instantly said a harmonica. That night I couldn’t sleep at all, spying on my dad’s every move. At midnight I saw him hanging in the tree two shiny little objects. I couldn’t resist anymore, woke up and took one of the harmonicas. My dad took the other, and started to play softly a few old songs. He was drunk and happy – probably, apart from the talent, I inherited this from him too. I went asleep with the harmonica under my pillow, and didn’t leave it ever since.”

ADAM

“Back then I was already working in the factory, and you know, during Communist times each factory had to have a band. Our factory had a band of harmonicas. They took me there and asked me to imitate some rhythms. Then they said: he’s good. You’re good, young man. We’re taking you for our band. You’ll play chord harmonica. But… I asked… what is the chord harmonica? And then the old guy who was conducting the band showed it to me. That’s it, young man. The biggest of all harmonicas.”

SPECIAL GUESTS