I'm THE BICYCLE MAN LOOKING FOR PEOPLE.
And the story began with a 125 km bicycle trip of mine, on a route that included many localities in the districts of Fălești, Sângerei and Telenești (Republic of Moldova). I had absolutely no intention of getting involved in any project, implicitly not even in the promotion of culture or cultural heritage.
But at a distance of about 30 km, I felt fatigue, sweating. But I couldn't give up, which is why I decided to stop in every locality where I could rest, restore my strength. And to continue the journey, proposing to identify through the localities people who would interpret popular songs for me with musical instruments or voice.
That's how I got the title of BICYCLE MAN

The trip was good for me. I discovered people, younger and older, from 16 years old to 89 years old. Young people eager for affirmation, the elderly have stopped playing the musical instrument (the accordion) for many years.
Back home, I posted on social media, which was noticed by a national television station. I made a life that got a lot of appreciation.
Meanwhile, I proposed to repeat the journey. This time I wanted to discover fiddlers/rhapsodies. But in my country there are no such instrumentalists anymore, as they are all schooled.
We have made a list of old popular musical instruments that our ancestors played. The list included 14 musical instruments, many of which are no longer on stage, concerts, so the younger generation no longer know them. The department of musical instruments no longer teaches instruction on many of their instruments either. Even if they are more contemporary, some instruments are no longer part of popular music orchestras, in the villages they are no longer played, as they used to, at the table with family, friends and relatives. Even during the agricultural work in the field, the songs of girls and boys are no longer heard. Even the shepherds no longer play the whistle (an old shepherd's instrument), so that in some time, they would have completely disappeared.
At the time I did not intuit the value of my idea, I realized this when I arrived at the gate of people who would play some popular instrument. Emotional and sentimental, I felt that I was the only one interested in the intangible cultural heritage, in the people who still play these instruments, in the folk craftsmen who make old folk musical instruments.
I managed to make a list in which I included about 376 musicians, 63 of which were recorded on video and presented to the public through the website www.folclor.md. For some protagonists I had become a personality, I had the ability to listen to their life stories.
This is how the "Old folk musical instruments" Project appeared, then the "Moldova Europeana" Musical Caravan, where I continued to visit these people, filming or organizing real concerts, from village to village, the format being applauded by the inhabitants of the villages I passed through. One day we had 4-8 concerts in different routes, being followed online on social networks.
Today the musical caravan is expected and requested, being part of local or regional cultural events.
I managed to get to the Transnistrian region, where no folklorist or specialist has ever set foot, discovering that there are also people there who possess these musical instruments. And so I managed to organize the Gala Concert of the musicians who play these musical instruments.
And I'm glad that I, alone, managed to revive the interest, to revitalize a forgotten field.

The chance makes me know the good world. There are people working abroad who would like to be part of my project. Then instrumentalists appeared from Romania, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, who want us to implement cultural projects to promote old popular musical instruments.
Every people has talents. Every nation has its popular musical instruments.
My project can become a project to involve the young and the elderly, regardless of country, ethnicity, people.
And I find this aspect in this Story Contest, which makes my aspirations take a wider, European scope.