f42 Tinos Treasury
Tinos World Music Festival is a new gem of an event combining some of the best music from around the Eastern Med with classic Greek island landscapes. Judith Burrows hopped on the ferry with her cameras.
archipelago, four hours ferry ride from Athens. The church of Our Lady Of Tinos beckons from high on the horizon above the town, a place of pilgrimage for whom the ritual is to approach from the harbour and ‘climb’ the 800 metres on one’s knees. Pass!
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Tinos is known as the windy isle. According to Eva Anifanti the myth is that the Northern Wind – the ‘father-wind’ – upon arrival in Tinos, went to Mount Tsik- nia to mourn for his sons murdered by Her- cules, and opened the windbags, releasing all the winds. But it’s a calm, balmy evening as we dock, the sea of glass reflecting light from the harbour wall.
There is a bustle of activity beyond. It is the first night of the Tinos World Music Festival and I arrive in time to hear the evocative voice of Martha Mavroidi ema- nating from an imposing building on the seafront; the Tinos Cultural Foundation. She is accompanied on stage by double bassist Yorgos Ventouris, percussionist Vaggelis Karipis, oud player Yurdal Tokcan Turkey), kaval player Nedyalko Nedyalkov
large solitary cloud fringed by the summer evening light hovers low over the Aegean sea as I glide towards Tinos, a Greek island in the Cyclades
(Bulgaria) and Harris Lambrakis (Greece) on ney… a magical combination of voice and instruments.
Martha (fR357 cover star) is the artistic director of this free festival conceived by the Greek composer Giorgos Koumen- dakis, supported by the Tinos Cultural Foundation and the Onassis Foundation. The event, now in its second year, focuses on eastern Mediterranean and Baltic con- nections. It began as a small, local festival bringing some of the best world musicians, who, inspired by folk traditions, are exploring new musical journeys. Now TWMF is already attracting an audience from overseas who see the festival in Tinos as part of their holiday agenda.
The second evening of concerts brings the exciting trio of Stelios Petrakis (Crete), Efren Lopez (Spain) and Bijan Chemirani (Iran) who take us on a journey through Greece, Persia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Spain and France with instru- ments as diverse as the hurdy gurdy, rabab, lyra and lute, all held together with Persian percussion. They are followed by the Ross Daly Quartet: you read about his Labyrinth workshop in Crete last issue. Influenced by Sufi tradition, they play lyras, cello, oud, saz and tarhu, mixing the ancient and spiritual with contemporary composition.
This feels entirely appropriate for an island which exudes an inexplicable spiri- tuality, especially evident when visiting the surrounding rugged countryside. On the wild hills and mountains of the northern tip huge rocks are strewn, balancing in strange geological formations like giant meteorites dropped from the sky. Artists and sculptors are attracted to Tinos with its own fine-art school. Now with the added musical component of the festival, the young, who in the past have aban- doned the islands for mainland Greece, are being encouraged to stay.
On the third evening there is some excitement. The famous winds are raging and have disrupted the schedule. Warn- ings that the ferry may not run on the fol- lowing day force Bijan Chemirani to flee that night. The sets are re-scheduled: Chemirani and Kevin Seddiki play a blind- ing one before rushing off into the night. They are followed by a group of talented local musicians, Melidron, surrounded by local children who have a strong presence throughout the festival.
The next day the sea is like a mirror again.
www.specsnarts.gr/festivals/item/129- tinos-world-music-festival-2014
F The Ross Daly Quartet: Sofia Elklidou, Kelly Thoma, Ross Daly and Taxtarchis Georgoulis
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