Savina Yannatou - Born in Athens, Greece, Savina Yanatou studied song with G. Georgilopoulou at the National Conservatory and with S. Sakkas at the "Workshop of Vocal Art", in Athens. She attended postgraduate studies (Performance and Communication Skills) at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, with a scholarship awarded by the Mousigetis Foundation.

After that she interpreted ?entechno? (?artful?) Greek songs, collaborating with well-known Greek composers and also covered contemporary opera and music. Later she focused on medieval, renaissance and barock music. In the early nineties she started experimenting with different vocal technics in free improvisation. Parallel to that she started a collaboration with a number of Thessaloniki-based musicians, who at that occasion founded the group ?Primavera en Salonico?, with which she recorded - and later performed - "Primavera en Salonico"-Sephardic Folk Songs from Salonica-, "Songs from the Mediterranean" , the "Virgin Maries of the World" and "Terra Nostra"(all released by LYRA/Musurgia Graeca, the second also in the USA by Sounds True under the name Mediterranea and the last one also by ECM).

Savina Yannatou has also composed her own music and songs (a.o. "Rosa das Rosas" and "Dreams of the mermaid" both released by Musurgia Graeca), as well as music for theater ( the latest being for Medea, performed in 1997 by the National Greek Theatre), video art and dance theater. All together she has brought out and/or participated in over 20 LPs and CDs.

Savina has also been involved with theater and dance as a co-producer and singer-actor in dance-theater plays that include traditional songs, myths and fairy tales of the Mediterranean.

The musical activity of the group members covers a broad range of styles: from European classical and old music to Byzantine music, traditional Greek music and music from the Near East to jazz, all of which with a strong emphasis on modern musical tendencies and improvisation. The group members have published some 15 CDs as composers, soloists or members of other groups, while the overall number of appearances on CDs surpasses 150 titles.

Based on traditional material - mainly from the Mediterranean Area - Savina Yannatou and the group Primavera en Salonico offer an open sound without borders or labels, from simple songs extending to contemporary music froms. Insisting on acoustic instruments, half of which have their origin in the East, they attempt at exploiting their specific sound, oftentimes also exploring them to the limits of their possibilities. Beyond her exquisite interpretive capacity Savina Yannatou gives special emphasis to the expression of the "music" of each different language, without letting that stop her from oftentimes using her voice as one more instrument. With a background that combines classical studies and "authentic" traditional music with improvised music and jazz, Savina Yannatou and the musicians of Primavera en Salonico find themselves like rope-dancers on the chord which connects the modal music of the East with the equivalent music of Western Europe, music of the Middle Ages and the popular polyphonies of the Mediterranean. Beginning from the melismatic riches of the Eastern Maqam and the charming irregular rhythms they explore the territory of collective free improvisation, meeting there modern jazz.

Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico have been giving concerts all over the world since 1996. This includes the whole of Europe, the United States, Israel and Taiwan, and venues like the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Barbican in London, the 92nd Street Y in New York, The Holon Theatre in Tel Aviv, and various WOMAD festivals, as well as numerous other world music festivals, like Stern Grove in San Francisco, Taipeh World Music Festival, Rudolstadt Festival in Germany, Fiesta des Suds in Marseille and many others. In 2002 highlights included the Medfest at the Barbican in London in June, the Island Sziget Festival in Budapest and a great triumph at the Melbourne Concert Hall as part of the Melbourne Festival in October. 2003 Started with a concert in the Queen Elizabeth hall in London, which was completely sold out, including standing places, and was a huge success.

Lilipoupoli (EMI, 1981)

Sabotage (Lyra, 1982 )

Kariotakis (Lyra, 1982 )

The '62 of M. Hadjidakis (Lyra, 1983 )

Lullabies (Lyra, 1985 )

Is King Alexander Alive? (Lyra, 1986)

The echo and its mistakes (Lyra, 1987 )

Ulysses in the river (Sirios, 1987)

Erotokritos and Aretoussa (Sirios, 1987)

The nightingale of the emperor (Lyra, 1990)

Maria Dolores a past, 1990 (Sirios, 1990)

Erotiki prova (Akti, 1991)

Die Zweite Heimat (Bella Musica, 1993)

New arrangements and performances, inspired by the film "Die Zweite Heimat" (Milan, 1993)

Masko, free improvisation for voice and percussion (Cymandron, 1993)

Primavera en Salonica (Musurgia Graeca ML 4765, 1994)

Mediterranea (General Publishing company, 1998. USA: Sounds True, 2000)

Rosa das Rosas (Lyra / Musurgia Graeca, 2000)

Pao na Po sto Synnefo (Lyra / Musurgia Graeca ML1003, 2002)

I am off to talk to the Clouds (Lyra, 2003)

Terra Nostra (ECM, 2003)

Sumiglia (ECM 1903, 2004)