What went before - The history of Lautareasca
Lautareasca was set up years ago (around 1990 or earlier), at which time we mostly played klezmer, Bulgarian and Rumanian music. The klezmer music came from the archive of Hans Witteman, the other scores were in Johan Paap's collection.

For a while, we performed as a nameless duo. When, during a performance, we were asked what we called ourselves, we took part of the title of a Rumanian piece of music which happened to be on our stands at the time. This was 'Hora Lautareasca' (a Rumanian piece).


We called ourselves Duo Lautareasca, and the name stuck. Later, only the word Lautareasca remained, and the accents above the A's disappeared

In 1997 we met the trumpetist Goran Grbic, and he became a member of Lautareasca. Goran played with Lautaresca until September 2002, when he decided to return to his native Yugoslavia for an extended period.
As a trio we made a number of very chilly beach photos and a demo CD called "Under Construction 1.0" (1997). The title was dedicated to the Hague's Tramtunnel which was then 'Under construction'. At the time, there were plans to make photos in front of the tunnel's building site, but one of the trio (the accordeonist), found the idea anathema.

and............it was really the beginning of summer.
Lautareasca's personnel since September 2002 is:

Hans Witteman
clarinet and bass clarinet

Dominy Clements
flute

Johan Paap
accordion