Harris Lambrakis – “The Makam of Istanbul” Seminar

Harris Lambrakis – “The Makam of Istanbul” Seminar

Harris Lambrakis, one of the finest ney players, will be in Brussels for a seminar on the makam of Istanbul or the Ottoman makam in general.

The central idea is the makam to be approached in practice with as much as possible repertoire and less talk. The old sound recordings and the practice on the instrument have an important role in this process. Where appropriate and feasible, the repertoire extends beyond the Ottoman music. At the base, however, of the process remains the analysis of the old recordings (taksim, gazel and compositions).

The workshop is open at all instruments capable of playing modal repertoire (including singers).

About the instructor:

Born in Athens, Greece, he started music at a very young age. He graduated from the Pallini Music High School and the Department of Music Studies (University of Athens). His first music teacher was his father, the painter Giorgos Lambrakis. He studied music under M. Mavroidis and Th. Varsou, ney under Sylvia Koutrouli and Ömer Erdoğdular, composition under Yannis Ioannidis (scholarship from the Nakas conservatory) and byzantine music under I. Arvanitis and V. Baraboutis. Since 2000 he has been teaching ney in conservatories in Athens (National Conservatory, Athens Conservatory, Simon Karas Music School). Moreover, he gives seminars and master classes in Greece and throughout the world.

He has worked with distinguished artists internationally such as Savina Yannatou, Bijan Chemirami, Domna Samiou, Michalis Siganidis, Haig Yazdjian, Ross Daly, Stelios Petrakis, Kostas Tatsakis, Miguel Gil etc) and has been a member of numerous groups (Primavera en Salonico, Oneira, Occasional Dream, Project 37 etc.). He has participated in more than 150 albums in Greek and international discography (ECM, Helico, Lyra Records etc) as a performer and composer and in numerous concerts in Greece and abroad (Europe, USA, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa) on traditional, jazz, ethnic, contemporary and improvisational music. He participated in the First International Ney Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey (October 2003). He has also composed music for theatre. Except ney, he also plays piano and hammond organ.