Discover the story of Richard Constantinidi, music and booking manager, is dedicated to promoting Romanian talent and organizing memorable events in the music scene.
Dr. Richard Constantinidi has been passionate about music since childhood. Music has always been his outlet for freedom, and the music impresario / epidemiologist listens to different musical genres depending on the mood he is in. Richard appreciates songs with a hook, with a message, being involved in various large-scale events locally (in Cluj), nationally (in Romania), and internationally. He was a club DJ, a radio DJ (back when there were no playlists imposed by station management), represented the record label Beggars Banquet UK (the largest independent) in Romania (1997-99), worked as a photojournalist for various publications, national magazines, daily newspapers, offline and online music magazines – and leisure guides over the years (1995-2017). He has already conducted over a thousand interviews with Romanian and internationally successful artists to date (representing the Romanian press at Rock Am Ring Nurnberg DE 97 and several of the first editions of Sziget Festival in Budapest HU 96-99, alongside countless festivals (and competitions) in the country, such as the last edition of Cerbul de Aur 97 or Mamaia 99. Richard has written more than three thousand album and gig reviews since 1995… having won the Echinox (urban culture magazine) ”2011 Music Critic of the Year Award.”
During 2000-03 he was the first DIY concert organizer in Cluj. He managed a multitude of local bands over the years and discovered many real talents back when they were still unknown nationally in Romania, such as Luna Amară, Grimus, Truda (other projects did not have the patience to prove themselves over time, such as Jazzybirds or Rehab Nation). The US-Romanian is the rock band manager who carried out the most extensive club concert tour in Romania, in 2006, alongside the band Luna Amară (a tour that included all the active clubs in the country at that time, where live music could be performed, and extended it to another six European countries). He organized the Live No Lies Festival (in Chișinău, capital of the neighboring Republic of Moldova, where Romanian is spoken), winning the 2007 Festival of the Year Award – and the second most important event in the Republic of Moldova in 2008 (the awards were granted by the former online music magazine Rupere.md).
Richard was a rock band manager; his greatest success was achieved alongside Luna Amară in the band’s early years (2000-07), but also in more recent years (2018-2022). He held the GBOB (Global Battle of the Bands) license for Romania and organized the most extensive festival-competition for live bands in Romania in 2015-16 (serving as Jury President) – Hteththemeth from Brașov ranking 2nd at the International Final in Berlin in 2016. Richard has been part of the organizing team at the Open Air Blues Festival in Brezoi (OABFB) since its first edition, being invited, on behalf of OABFB, as a Jury member at the Live Competition of the oldest Blues music festival in France, at Cahors, in 2023.
The story continues, and Richard remains dedicated to discovering new musical talents, whether in Rock, Metal, or Blues – being President of the “Constelații Rock 2023” Jury and being invited in the Jury at the prestigious “Mississippi Trail Challenge” competition in Cahors FR, and in 2025 serving as Jury President at the first “European Blues Challenge” organized in Brezoi – and Jury President at “Constelații Rock 2025” in Râmnicu Vâlcea. At present, he collaborates with Călin Pop, singer-songwriter and lead vocalist of “Celelalte Cuvinte,” for his solo project and the „Călin Pop & Raul Silaghi” duo.
C&B: How would you describe yourself in one sentence, so as to pique the curiosity of those who don’t know you yet?
Richard Constantinidi: A Kentuckian relocated in Transylvania who has done almost everything there is to do behind the scenes in the music industry on the Romanian underground scene; an unorthodox innovator in the Balkan, post-communist landscape.
C&B: If we were to look at a narrative thread of your career or business, what were the key moments that defined you?
Richard Constantinidi: – 1993/4. The “Lollypop Show” and the night shift on my first job, at Uniplus Radio Cluj
- 1995-99. Music critic, editor and photojournalist at the first TV guide in Romania, “TV Satelit” magazine.
- 2000-06 (and 2018-2022). Manager of a local band “Luna amară”, from Cluj, that reached a level of national success in the alternative rock genre (currently celebrating their 25th Anniversary).
- 2007 Co-manager, together with Ernesto Bianchi, of the Bistrița band, Grimus, which represented Romania at the 2007 GBOB World Final in London.
- 2008 Organizer of the “Live No Lies” festival in Chișinău, voted “2008 Festival of the Year” in the Republic of Moldova.
- 2011. Echinox (urban culture) magazine’s “Critic of the Year Award”.
- 2015/16. Organizer and Licensee of the Romania Global Battle of the Bands (GBOB) competition, the national Winner, “Hteththemeth” from Brașov, brought the Silver Trophy home from the 2016 GBOB World Final in Berlin.
- 2017-present. Reporter at the “Open Air Blues Festival Brezoi”, where I take LIVE interviews with all the Main Stage artists (… coming from all over the World).
- 2023. Member of the “Mississippi Trail Challenge” Jury in Cahors FR.
- 2025. President of the “European Blues Challenge Romania” Jury; the winner, “Green Onions Experience” from Cluj will represent Romania at the European Blues Challenge Final in Poland, in April 2026.
- 2025. President of the Jury for the “2025 Rock Constellations Challenge” (President of the Jury in 2023 as well).
C&B: What were the first challenges in building a cultural organization dedicated to music?
Richard Constantinidi: GBOB Romania was carried out, for example, through the Sound of Music Association, which, because of the Pandemic (during which basically ALL LIVE events were cancelled or postponed for 15 months), ceased its activity…
The personal challenges are constantly to develop and surpass myself year after year with what I do: to work better professionally, to be transparent with artists and to build friendships with everyone who is open to do so. A big problem in the business world is the Money Game, this obsession of most of the older successful artists in post-communist Romania to keep all of the major outdoor City Events for themselves, through their contacts … For me, it is not the Cash Flow that keeps me going, but actually my passion for the Music! I seek to identify artists who put their soul into what they do, talented musicians for whom the instrument is an extension of their being, intellectual people who compose lyrics from the heart. I want to promote quality music, in the long term. Life has taught me that if you do what you love, work with passion and have patience, the financial reward you deserve will come to you. Sometimes, relationships built over time are much more valuable than immediate amounts of money earned.
Regarding the challenges created by the environment, we live in times of seasonal successes, cover bands hunting for Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs with other people’s music, voices that do not sound as good on stage as on the studio tweeked recordings … a world in which I consider that the Direction we are going in is that the AI-manufactured acts will surpass the early New Millenium success stories of record company Pre-fabricated bands. But I believe that, in the long run, you can not fool the average consumer’s ears. An AI-conceived band will never be able to play “LIVE” onstage.
In my field of work, examples of challenges that exceeded my ability to master them would be the first GBOB Romania Final that I organized in December, 2015, in Râmnicu Vâlcea, where an important sponsor withdrew its intention after the *Collective Tragedy” (on October 30, 2015, a fire occurred at a club in Bucharest where there were 200 victims – burned, injured and deceased – and the leader of the Romanian Orthodox Church was featured on all TV Stations, condemning young people who listen to rock music as being Satanists!
Then, at the 2016 GBOB Romania Final, I would have had the support of the Brașov City Hall with a Press Conference room inside its building – and implicit promotion to all mass media institutions in Brașov County… but if I promoted the date of the final FOUR months in advance… TWO months before the date of the Final, the Romanian government announced the date of the Presidential Elections … on the same weekend. I could not change the date and my agreement with Brașov City Hall was … gone with the wind … the politicians were out promoting the upcoming elections and there was no one left to host and help me with the Press Conference… moreover, the Mass Media was focused on the elections – not on this unique and special cultural event for Brașov – and for Romania!
To demonstrate that it is a NATIONAL competition for LIVE bands from all over the country, my idea was to organize each annual national final in a different city in Romania. This would have a long-term marketing impact, covering all regions of the country and, in time, would make GBOB Romania so popular, that there would be no need for a direct national TV collaboration (which would very likely not get involved in indirect competition with other “Voice”, “X” and “Talent” challenges … and furthermore, the music genres promoted at GBOB Romania came from the underground scene –not necessarily non-commercial – but unknown newcomers for the general public.
To add insult to injury, my Licensing collaboration for GBOB ended suddenly for reasons beyond my control… The project CEO, Tore Lande, based in Norway, was at an age at which he could no longer manage the business – and internationally, no GBOB World Finals were ever organized again after 2016. From what I know, the competition has moved online… so, it is not LIVE anymore!
C&B: Is there a dream or ambition that has always guided you, regardless of obstacles?
Richard Constantinidi: In any business, I believe that you have to aim High, taking examples from the tip of the pyramid! When it came to “Luna amară”, my ambition was guided by the success of manager George Martin, who discovered and worked with the “Beatles”… I bought books about the music industry back in 1994 and read them inside-out, and, together with my ideas, I always tried to adapt the Western way of thinking to the East European virgin market, in 90s (and early noughts) Romania.
In terms of organizing events, and now, whenever I go to a concert or festival, I have the professional “bad habit” that I can’t relax – just to dance or have fun as a simple spectator. I tend to study organization details, where the stage lights are placed, the choreography of the band on stage – and the non-verbal communication between the musicians…
The Sziget Festival, which I had the chance to be accredited to as a photojournalist in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, is my example of a top notch large-scale event (Sziget is a week-long Festival in Budapest HU, organized in August, with a large number of genre specific stages; the first edition took place in 1993… so I witnessed the fourth edition… when the island was still green – and the children’s play areas were not fenced off… I was very lucky). At that time, a Romanian-Hungarian, the late Dan Panaitescu, who moved to Hungary after 1990, was the festival Booking Manager. He helped me interview Ice-T (even though I wasn’t on the official press list!), he helped me with accommodation in Budapest when he was single (and I was traveling for the magazine to interview Metallica in Bielefeld/Germany and The Cardigans in London in 1997 – Top Popular Acts at the time).
But you can’t get along with everyone. It’s hard to work with people! I was very ambitious in my youth, at the beginning of my journey; I wanted to do EVERYTHING possible… I had a concert in Bucharest where one of the local organizers in charge of “Faithless” was pissed off at me … I was accredited for the concert (because of the magazine I worked for), but I had NO ACCESS to the band (because of my bad relationship with this guy!) … but I already knew the ”Polivalenta” Sports Arena in Bucharest, I knew my way backstage… so I put the cassette recorder in my underwear, and the moment the artists came down – to go backstage, I rushed past the security guards, directly to one of the artists, I called out to him with his birthname (knowing that they were non-conventional and anti-system artists) and I told him that I was NOT allowed to interview them … and my plan worked!
He took me backstage with him by the shoulder and I dived straight into the questions… the organizer caught me in the middle of the conversation with him, and he couldn’t say anything, so as not to spoil the pleasant atmosphere – but we exchanged glances … and even now, after almost 30 years… I found out from a mutual acquaintance (two years ago) … that he still hasn’t forgotten me!
This is the kind of work you ”steal” and learn “on the job”. I am basically old school and prefer face-to-face discussions and negotiations. It is important to look your partner or competitor in the eye, to notice gestures or facial expressions that you cannot sense through a quick email or WhatsApp message.
C&B: How did you look at the beginning of your journey and how do you feel that you have transformed yourself so far?
Richard Constantinidi: What a strange question… are we talking ”physically” J … I am amused by how much a political leader can change after 4 or 5 years in office… fortunately, in the cultural field, I am lucky to work with and meet people that are 70-80 years old who have an open mind, think and behave like they are 20 … and I have learned to respect artists of any age, regardless of whether they are 10 … or 75. I talk to everyone as an equal, and I give everyone the same respect regardless of skin color, gender or country of origin. I believe that we are all contemporary on this planet and I believe that we all have something to learn from each other, regardless of age or level of education. I have met underschooled people who are more civilized and eloquent than university professors (who get lost in technical jargon that only they understand)!
To answer the question …as I said earlier… I feel like I’m 23… and if you had asked me this question before Covid, you would have caught me at 20 J
C&B: If we met your team or collaborators, what do you think they would say about you?
Richard Constantinidi: It depends on which team and which collaborators – and from which stage of my life… As I have already said, at the beginning of my career I was mean … I was a power hungry control freak, determined to skip steps and climb quickly up the ladder and do EVERYTHING I possibly could… I betrayed colleagues to take over their responsibilities – and fully coordinate the entire music department at the magazine.
I broke ties with associates – even with a very good, old friend, who didn’t do anything intentionally bad to me – and looking back I regret it, but sometimes in life you have to blaze your own trail to achieve your goal. I learned the hard way that you can ruin a good relationship, with a single negative action. WORDS (especially written ones) are very important. I’m still learning Diplomacy J. I was choleric at a certain stage in my life; few have gotten over it and forgiven me.
Those I have argued with over the years represent a small part of those I have collaborated with and met. I know from reliable sources that even older artists, with whom I have not worked with directly, in the LIVE pop-rock genre, know and respect me.
I am respected because I managed to raise an unknown band (from outside the Capital of a very centralised country) to the rank of national stardom (in its niche) in Romania. My work is known. Then, there is the fact that I have not done anything stupid like cheating on fees or lying about revenues. I am an “Ein Mann, Ein Wort” guy (translated from German, ”I do what I say”). I do not promise what I cannot do. In life, nothing is certain, nothing is guaranteed.
With “Luna amară” (in English, ”Bitter Moon”) I organized some of the first DIY concerts in Romania (at that time I didn’t know this term!), I organized the largest club tour for a Romanian band … something like 36 gigs in 4 months… I was on the road from Wednesdays or Thursdays to Sunday, I stayed home for two or three days, then I was on the road again. I took Luna amară to Holland, Germany, France, Moldova, Bulgaria, Turkey and Hungary in 2006. It was complete madness! In six years of working with them, I tour managed and accompanied them in three hundred concerts … and only missed out on four.
In 2004, my level of Popularity as a band manager increased and I would receive several demos on a weekly basis from young LIVE acts who wanted to make it in the music industry …and even today I still receive emails or messages from artists looking for someone to represent their interests… I feel very lucky and honored to be contacted by artists of various musical backgrounds. Now that I have started to practice Medicine (after the Pandemic), I hope to have the time to continue doing good work in the music industry in my spare time.
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C&B: What is the most important decision you have made that has changed your trajectory?
Richard Constantinidi: In everything I do, I never say NO. If an opportunity arises through which I believe I can develop my organizing skills, or through which I can gain more contacts or strengthen the contacts I have, I will not refuse.
I DO say no in situations where the project proposal does not match the kind of contacts I have or if I do not see any perspective with the project offered.
My direction in life was changed by the Pandemic Lockdown in 2020. Club gigs and festivals were blocked for up to 18 months in some places. After about six months, perhaps the largest open air bar in the country opened in Bucharest (6 hours away by car from Cluj, where I was based), where concerts could be organized, with artists wearing face masks, with the audience wearing face masks, tables spaced apart, with a maximum of 3 people at a table, sitting down only … an extremely bizzare situation for holding a LIVE concert – and for the artist’s performance on stage; a dystopian reality! Additionally, I was watching the news on a daily basis to find out if the respective city on that date was “code green”, “code yellow” or “code red”… Code Red meant the concert was canceled! However, this uncertainty did not affect other professions such as (strangely) those working in Construction…
I returned to the degree I had distanced myself from since I graduated from college, that of General Medicine. I passed the Residency exam at the end of 2020; four years later I passed the Specialist exam, and now, after another 9 months [employment for doctors in State Hospitals were blocked shortly after the end of the Pandemic (!?! I don’t think I’ll ever understand the system!)], I finally started practicing as a doctor in the field of Epidemiology!
Nonetheless, I will continue to do my impresario work in my free time, as much as I can.
C&B: Can you tell us about an event or a project that marked a defining moment for the Sound of Music Association?
Richard Constantinidi: I consider the most important moment, and the moment that should have sparked the interest of Private or Public sponsors (starting with the Ministry of Culture and Education, and promoting local culture internationally through the Romanian Institute of Culture) … (which unfortunately – DID NOT happen) … was the success of the 2015 GBOB Romania Winners, Hteththemeth, at the World Final in Berlin. Moreover, I have to add that I saw and noticed the potential in two bands in the competition, which did not qualify straight to the National Finals through the Jury’s vote, nor through the Public voting system. As President of the Jury, and with the approval of my Associates, Mihai Răzvan Mugescu from Râmnicu Vâlcea and Robert Benedek (originally from Brașov, who moved to Timișoara), I qualified two additional bands in the National Final, as “Wild Cards”… 1. “Hteththemeth” (who took 1st Place) and 2. “Sequence”, a band from Serbia, where GBOB was not organized (which took 2nd Place)… Later, I convinced Tore Lande, the organizer of the GBOB World Final, to accept and invite the band from Serbia, so that an additional country would be represented in the grand scheme of things! Basically, I went to Berlin with two bands qualified in the final!
The GBOB World Final was won by “Synoptik” from Ukraine (the year after Russia invaded Crimea) … and at the Berlin Final, before the judging, Tore Lande whispered in my ear, walking past me… that it was a shame that the band Hteth… didn’t have a name that could be easily read …
It’s a shame that we don’t have a professional Music Press in Romania. It’s a shame that we don’t have a serious music industry – and if you hadn’t asked me, this story wouldn’t have been published anywhere!
C&B: What do you think sets your Association or your professional approach apart from the rest of the industry?
Richard Constantinidi: As I said before, I’m old school. I like face-to-face discussions. When I could afford it, I would drive alone, hours away from home, to negotiate and shake hands with various organizers. Before organizing the first nine GBOB Semifinals, I personally invested in all the trips I made around the the country to personally see The LIVE Music Clubs, to personally talk to the club owners, to personally get to know the local press, which in 2015 was still functional even in smaller County capitals. I knocked on 107 City Hall doors and personally glued posters everywhere I went.
I took the DIY concept to the extreme!
Most impresarios live in Bucharest and (maybe) pay for an ad on a social media page, post a video – and then wait for their phone to ring… I’m sure I would have done a better job if I moved to Bucharest, but besides the fact that it seems like an extremely chaotic city, it’s like living in Timisoara, Constanța, Botoșani or Baia Mare… I would have been lost in a corner of the country, on the border with Bulgaria…
Now, even with the weak highway network we have, I can quickly travel between Târgu Mureș, Cluj, Alba Iulia-Sebeș, Deva, Timisoara, Arad and Sibiu, all the way to the Olt Valley – using the highway. Highways are extremely necessary to unite us and for developing business between the various regions of the country … and they are way overdue…
C&B: What does a typical day look like for you now and what moments of the day bring you the most satisfaction?
Richard Constantinidi: Ideally, I should wake up in the morning, work until noon, eat well, take a nap, and continue working until 5-6 p.m., after which I could exercise and do various things in the yard or garden, and in the evening I would sit down to a story with close friends over a pint of beer… but that doesn’t really happen… every day is different, unexpected situations always arise, and I’m not a morning person…
C&B: What values or principles guide you in what you do and how do you apply them every day?
Richard Constantinidi: In any field, it’s good to be a man of your word. If you have to say NO, just say NO, even if it hurts. I get annoyed by those who don’t know how to say NO… It is important that you know clearly what you have to do next…
If I have the chance to work with a band who took the time to send me links – or maybe a CD Demo – and I am impressed by what I hear … the first step for me is to go and see them rehearse. I don’t sign contracts anymore, because it’s not good for me to be tied to a band I can’t work with. I’m looking for bands I can be in close contact with, who sing in Romanian – because Romanian lyric songs have the greatest impact … (of course, if we’re talking about extreme metal, they can sing in any language, because no one will understand anything they sing about anyway)!
The name of the band is very important as well. Clothing, image, a logo… I’m going into details now … step by step, everything has to be brainstormed and thought through.
I would be happy to have the opportunity to listen to new bands playing on stage… but with Social Media, Spotify and Music classes being taken out of school curriculums, there are fewer and fewer bands being started, and those that appear are mostly Cover Bands, and televised music competition shows have the greatest negative impact in this regard, where “the Voices” are instructed to sing internationally successful hits – for higher ratings!
C&B: How was the Sound of Music Cultural Association born and what inspired you to start on this path?
Richard Constantinidi: I grew up in a family of Romanians who fled their homeland because of Communism. My parents listened to Romanian interbellic music stars: “Gică Petrescu” and “Maria Tănase” on reel to reel tapes and cassettes at home… When I was in the 6th grade (in 1981), during a break, my classmates asked me what my favorite music band was… I, being brought up the way I was, tried to give the best answer I could think of, to “fit in” … and when I said “Elvis Presley”, they laughed their heads off!
I had a small stereo system in my room. At the age of 11, for the very first time, being born and raised in the USA, I turned on my FM Radio … and what I first listened to there exceeded all my expectations… I discovered Blondie, Talking Heads, Men At Work, The Police … and after that, every chance I got, and when my parents weren’t listening, I would turn on the radio. At night, on weekends, I would fall asleep after midnight with my headphones on… I would record the weekly Singles Charts and after a while I would just listen to “Casey Kasem’s Top 40 Countdown” until the last “New Entry” song played … also in the summer of 1981, MTV was launched… and in October I was lucky that my parents weren’t paying attention, and I switched on the TV to watch the world premiere of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video… Music was my outlet for freedom. It was a dream to be able to work with bands, to reinvent the wheel on a virgin market, and to do the first tours around the country with an “underground” band at the start of the new Millenium (2000-2003…), until we managed to become known (I am referring to “Luna amară” again) at a national level, a few years before MySpace was launched (followed by YouTube).
I can’t get rid of the music bug, from which I have been chronically suffering since the age of 11.
C&B: What are the Association’s development plans in the coming years?
Richard Constantinidi: I’m going to try and restart the “Sound of Music” Association. If that’s not possible, I’ll look for another name and maybe start a new company. The world is constantly changing, and I’m trying to adapt and change with it, on my own terms and at my own pace. I still consider it important to work both with online AND offline promotion media.
I have the Alternative Folk duo, I could create a new Brand and try to organize a series of gigs in collaboration with a venue – or I might look for an untapped musical niche and try to grow a festival organically, starting with a pilot edition!
It is important to do what you love and never give up on your dreams. I believe that any project that is developed with dedication and passion can bear fruit at some point…
Through his passion, professionalism, and experience, he helps cultivate an authentic music scene where talent and originality are celebrated.
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