Urban Fair 2024 Vol.5 at the We Multipurpose Center in Thessaloniki

Chorodentro presents for one more year the Urban Festival in Thessaloniki, inspired by tradition, with a focus on today.

The “Urban Festival vol.5” will take place on Saturday 13 January 2024 at We.

At the “Urban Fair vol.5”, on Saturday 13 January 2024, the music group “Evritiki Zygia”, the singer Katerina Douka and the music group “Pontus Quartet” will meet.

The groups will present us tunes and songs of Thrace and Pontus in a game of traditional and modern sounds. They will take us on a musical journey to the land of Orpheus and the much-loved Pontus, to beloved places with familiar songs through their unique style.

The concert will take place at the We multi-purpose venue in Thessaloniki

The history of the Urban Festival:

The workshop of dance and music, singing and play “Chorodendentro” held the urban festival for the first time in January 2019.

The desire was to convey the feeling of a summer fair in a modern, welcoming and contemporary urban environment. This challenge of modern space and sounds was met by the musical group “Evritiki Zygia”, a well-known group in the traditional bays for the quality and ethos with which it treats tradition, but also for its willingness to evolve traditional music.

Katerina Douka, singer and teacher of traditional singing, who has been involved in several genres of music (traditional, art, rebetiko, retro), was also in the same mood, but her involvement with the music of Thrace is particularly characteristic.

And this is how the “Urban Fair” was born, which in its second year, in January 2020, was enriched with the company of the DRom music group, who deal with Balkan sounds.

The pandemic of covid-19 brought the mandatory pause of two years and the transfer from January 2022 to April 2022.

Last year at the “Urban Fair vol.4” the orchestras “Evritiki Zygia” and “Chalkina Echochromata” composed and presented for the first time on stage the song of the “Urban Fair”.

Performers:

Evritiki Yoke
Spyros Stratos: Bagpipes

Angelos Stratos: Percussion

Stratis Pasopoulos: cavalier-song

Stamatis Pasopoulos: accordion

Pantelis Agistriotis: Thracian and polite lyre

Duka Katerina: Singing
Pontus Quartet
Melina Hadjikamanou: singing

Filippos Kesapidis: pontian lyre

Yannis Karakalpakidis : bass, guitars, lute

Christos Tasios: percussion

Biographical notes of the performers:

Evritiki Zygia
The traditional music band “Evritiki Zygia” first appeared in 2007. It consists of primordial instruments, deeply rooted in the memory of the people and completely intertwined with the tradition of Thrace.

“Evritiki” because the reference point is the folklore of Evros and “Zygia” because in the “language” of traditional musicians the term denotes the representative traditional orchestra of each place.

The dedication to the authentic way of expression of traditional Thracian music, the continuous research, recording and reproduction of unpublished songs, the uninterrupted participation in Thracian customs and traditions, as well as the intense presence in cultural events in Greece and abroad make up the identity of Evritiki Zygia.

The band’s recordings:

“Trantafylloverga” – Songs anecdotes from the village of Chionades Evros, March 2013
“Ner for dgeiti αφιgrastiti” – Songs anecdotes from villages of Makra Gefyra, Eastern Thrace, March 2016.
Ormenion – Personal compositions and arrangements of the band by Teranga Beat record label

Duka Katerina
She was born and raised in Thessaloniki and through her family environment she comes in contact with singing and dancing for the first time.
She participated in the Dance Group of Thessaloniki Student Estates (H.O.F.E.TH.) first as a dancer and then teaching Greek traditional dances. Her years of study of the Greek music and dance tradition and at the same time her involvement with traditional singing, are reflected for the first time in Vangelis Dimoudis’ recording “Heliovasilema in Evros”, where she participates as a singer.

A few years later they record the double CD “Evros” with the Thracian traditional band “Methorios”, where she performs unpublished songs of northern Evros.

He also participates in the recording “Tonight” by Sofia Natsiou. Since 2010, together with Stamatis Pasopoulos, they created the “radyophone”.

In 2012, together with Lefteris Tsikouridis, Manolis Porphyrakis and Christos Pappas, they created “πληри деξι” performing pre-war rebetiko songs and music and released 3 albums with original performances/compositions of the group.

In 2017 her dance concerns led her to the founding group of “Chorodendro”, where she curates the section “I will sing the dance”. Since January 2019 she is also an integral member of the project “Urban Fair”.

The singer’s recordings:

1. Complete – 2013
2. Mission in 2014
3. Third disc – 2015
4. Soiree – 2019

He first came in contact with rebetiko in 2007, singing in music venues in Thessaloniki.

In 2016 her first personal album is released with the title “kiss in the mouth” with lyrics and music by composer/lyricist Sofia Natsiou.

Pontus Quartet :
The Pontus Quartet was recently created by a group of musicians who work and perform in Thessaloniki, with the ultimate goal of performing and creating music from the Pontus region, and the wider Black Sea region.

Musicians from different musical cultures, and influences, each carving their own unique musical path, and with a common point the creation and musical search of Pontian music in the contemporary environment, creating a special musical identity.

The Pontus Quartet aims to present Pontic music with traditional acoustic instruments, using modern means of music production and performance, as well as to operate from concert conditions to performances of traditional feasts.