Fanfare Shukar

Fanfare Shukar is a Roma brass band from Romania. The band was founded in the 1990s by clarinetist and multi-instrumentalist Costica Pantiru and consists of 10 musicians. Before changing its name to the currently used Fanfare Shukar, the band was known as Fanfare Zece Prajini (shukar, by the way, is a Roma word and means something like good/beautiful). All the musicians in the band come from Zece Prajini, a small village with only 400 inhabitants, located in the eastern part of Romania, near the border with Moldova. The village has already become quite famous in the ethno music scene thanks to the success of another local brass band, Fanfare Ciocarlia.

The musicians of Fanfare Shukar are related to each other. The group's founder, Costica Pantiru, is one of the best-known band leaders in Romania and is regularly invited to participate with his group in television shows and festivals around the country. Pantiru is a virtuoso of all the instruments used in the band. This talent results in unique arrangements that give the band its distinctive sound. It is not always possible to tell exactly where the traditional songs end and Costica's original creations begin, but they make the band's concerts always an unparalleled experience. The band often describes their musical style as "influential Eastern European gypsy pan-Balkan music" or more simply as "turbo brass". Fanfare Shukar has performed at numerous concerts and festivals both nationally and internationally, including Japan, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. Despite their national and international success, Fanfare Shukar continues to play regularly at weddings, village festivals and funerals in and around their hometown of Zece Prajini. In this way, the musicians help preserve local traditions and remain part of the local community.