Zeno Coste

Romanian tenor singer (born May 30, 1907 in Ciacova [then Hungary, now Romania], died August 21, 1985 in Timișoara, Romania). The son of a Romanian politician, Coste had a small role as a singer in the first Romanian sound film, "Ciuleandra" (1930). In December of that same year, while studying electrical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin, he recorded fourteen songs in Romanian for the Columbia label in Berlin. Between 1931 and 1932 he was a member of the vocal group Die Parker. Starting in 1932, he served as the First Tenor of another popular vocal quartet, Die Kardosch-Sänger. In 1936 he recorded a few songs with the Meistersextett (most notably, "Ich wollt' ich wär ein Huhn"). In 1937 Coste sang a small part in the movie "La Habanera" with Zarah Leander. In 1938 he returned to his native Romania where he worked as an engineer in Bucharest. On the side, he performed in two operas with the Romanian National Opera in Iași in 1942 and 1944. After the war, he worked as an engineer in Timișoara, where he sang as a soloist in the Philharmonic Choir and the Cathedral Choir.