Icarus Festival for Dialogue Between Cultures 2008

The Icarus Festival for Dialogue Between Cultures will be held at Ikaria Island, Greece, June through July 2008. This year, the festival is dedicated to the violin. The violin being a favorite instrument of Ikaria.

The festival takes place every summer on the Greek island of Ikaria in the North East Aegean Sea. The purpose of the Icarus Festival for Dialogue Between Cultures is to host performances by artists or groups whose music is a product of multicultural participation or inspiration. 2008 is the third year of its activity.

The program begins June 23/24/25 Evdilos & 27/28 Agios Kirikos with Ship of Fools "Jason-The Magic Quest." Cultural foundation Azart bought  a 1916 ship in 1989, called her Azart and transformed her in a Ship of Fools, home and transportation of an artists’ collective and theatre company. The ship provides for the crew a home, kitchen, theatre/TV-studio and transportation alike. Since 2007 the ship sails the Greek waters. As sailors, the Ship of Fools, inspired by Greek Mythology, has chosen "Jason of the Argonauts" for their 2008 performances.

Christos Tsiamoulis (ud – voice) & Halil Karaduman (qanun)
Common traditions – Greek and Turkish Songs from Asia Minor and Constantinople
July 2 Raches & July 3 Evdilos

 

Christos Tsiamoulis is wandering from the beginning of his life in the paths of Hellenic Traditional Music. He2 discovers old ancient motives, and the diachronic elements, he is studing them, he maintains them with respect and devotion, while he gives all his efforts in order to maintain them alive. Halil Karaduman is a world class master of the qanun and particularly admired in Greece. Following his worldwide concerts with Zülfü Livaneli he worked with various orchestras and artists such as Mikis Teodarakis, Maria Faranduri, Geora Faidman, Al di Meola, Habib Chan, Lizbeth List etc. He has recorded 3 CDs in Turkey, 1 in USA and 2 in Greece. With Christos Tsiamoulis they have recorded their first album Christos Tsiamulis meets Chalil Karantouman, live in 2001.

The concerts will be also featuring Socratis Sinopoulos (lyra), Vasilis Ketetzoglou (guitar) and Manousos Klapakis (percussion).

Drom with Nicoleta Anastasiou (voice) w. Jamie Smith (violin)
Gypsy Music from all around Europe
July 6 Evdilos & July 8 Raches

"Drom, literally a road from the Greek Dromos, signifies a journey in the universal Romani or gypsy culture. The ancient gypsies were fearless explorers, true to their romantic spirit, people of the earth and very creative. From their origins in India, they spread through the Middle East, North Africa and Europe." (quote from "dromnyc.com)

Drom present a mixture of musical storytelling and driving rhythmic built-ups over old Gypsy melodies. Stage presence and fine musicianship is the strong point of this colourful group. The band consists of Nicoleta Anastasiou (voice), Jaime Smith (violin), Vasilis Ziakas (accordion), Costas Vavitsas (guitars), Yiorgos Fasolis (percussion)

Novitango Quinteto with dancers Fabien Ballejos & Gina Nikolitsa
20th century tango voyage, from the classics to the contemporaries

July 14 Raches & July 16 Agios Kirikos

Novitango Quintet members are Sergiu Nastasa (violin), Yiannis Antonopoulos (piano), Anastasia Georgaki (accordion), George Theodorakakos (double bass) and Stavros Katirtzoglou (guitar). They all have classical music background and European careers. The group presents Nuevo tango through the repertoire of Αstor Piazzolla, Rodolfo Mederos, Leonardo Sanchez, Juan Jose Mosalini etc. Their lead singer Yiula Michael has been singing classical & jazz in Paris and Athens and lately she collaborates with Novitango in recordings & performances.Fabien Ballejos is the choreographer of the performance.

Djamel Benyelles & Djam & Fam w. Klaudia Delmer
French-Algerian – "U and Us" a fusion project
July 21 Evdilos & July 22 Agios Kirikos

Extraordinary violinist Djamel Benyelles originates from Oran, carries the great Arab violin tradition and he is a master of Rai music as well as the French variete music from Florent Pagny to Yannick Noah. He became widely known from his arrangements for Djam & Fam and Jane Birkin. With Birkin they presented the project – album "Arabesque" around the globe with great success. In Ikaria he will be presenting "U and Us" a mixture of orient and occident-groovy music. Appearing with Djamel will be Florent Prabel, Frederic Maggi, Aziz Boulaaroug and Stephane Cretin. Klaudia Delmer will appear as a guest in a few songs by Djamel and her own.

All concerts will be held within the aforementioned townships. Starting time 9:45 pm
Bus service will be available between cities the dates of the concerts
General admission is € 10.
Festival site:
http://icarus-festival.ikaria.gr

Icarus Festival for Dialogue between Cultures is organized by the 3 Municipalities of Ikaria: Agios Kirikos, Evdilos and Raches.
Island info: http://www.ikaria.gr/index.php?mylang=english

Icarus TV  promo at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94jFE1fXvVM.

Photos: 1- Christos Tsiamoulis & Halil Karaduman, 2 – Vasilis Ziakas (Drom), and 3 – Djamel Benyelles