Release Date: June 21st, 2024
The Kombos Collective to release new recording titled “UPROOT”. An incredibly powerful program of Greek songs from Asia Minor celebrating this vibrant musical heritage and capturing the refugee experience through song.
About the recording:
Hellenic-speaking peoples have ancient roots in Asia Minor, also known as Anatolia, a region that covers present-day Turkey. During the Ottoman Empire, modern port cities like Smyrna and Constantinople were international hubs of culture and commerce, with rich musical traditions that reflected their diverse populations: Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Arabs, Roma, Jews and people from across Europe, Africa and Asia. Neapolitan songs, waltzes, opera, and the melismatic Café Aman tradition all made up the musical fabric of these places. A style known as smyrneika, meaning from Smyrna, emerged from this cosmopolitan milieu and could be heard in taverns and cafes.
The concept for Uproot started in 2022 at the centennial of the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe, one of the most tragic events in Modern Greek history. With the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Greek and Turkish nationalism, the two nationalist armies went to war, and in Asia Minor in late 1922, led to the mass atrocities and expulsion of Greeks and other Christians. In September 1922, Smyrna was set on fire and the Greek and Armenian districts largely burned to the ground. My own ancestors were living in Smyrna at the time and managed to escape with their lives. Their only remaining possessions were their sacred icons, which my family still treasures to this day. Their story of survival and resilience is the driving force behind this project. In the process of arranging the songs, I was so moved at the realization that my great-grandparents likely knew these songs.
This music has connected me to my ancestors and the rich life worlds they inhabited, before and even through their experience of displacement. Rembetiko was a musical style that emerged in newly independent Greece in the 19th century. It’s an urbanized folk tradition that reflects the pain and malaise of the underworld, people who were marginalized to the fringes of society. Anatolian refugees often became part of the urban underworld and undoubtedly influenced rembetiko with their own experiences of longing and displacement. Dance traditions like the zeibekiko and the tsiȄteteli, now common elements in the genre, have their origins in Asia Minor. Uproot features a mix of traditional smyrneika songs from Asia Minor and rembetiko tunes from mainland Greece. Like memories, the songs go forward and backwards in chronology and also span a different corner of the Aegean.
It is my hope that these songs can act as portals into the joys and sorrows of refugees from one corner of the world, and resonate with a common refugee experience in the world over.
Ellie Falaris Ganelin • Director, Kombos Collective
About The Kombos Collective:
The Kombos Collective (formerly Greek Chamber Music Project) presents captivating programming in intimate concert settings inspired by the Hellenic World. The Kombos Collective is a champion of Greek composers, shedding light on the rich musical repertoire coming out of Greece and the Greek diaspora. Recent programs have included Music of Resistance: A Tribute to Mikis Theodorakis (2024), Uproot: Music from Asia Minor (2023), the commissioning of Talos Dreams, inspired by the myth of the first robot (2021-2022), deeply personal songs about The Iliad in Conversations with Homer (2020); and the East Coast tour, Remembering the Jews of Greece (2019). Kombos has released several full-length albums and performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Library of Congress, as well as cultural centers and universities across the U.S. and Canada. KombosMusic.com
Katerina Clambaneva specializes in traditional and contemporary Greek music and performs internationally, throughout Europe and the United States. She is captivated by world music and is very interested in cultural fusion through musical expression. She has a versatile voice and enjoys singing in a multitude of languages. Katerina maintains a busy performance schedule participating in several groups including, PAKAW!, Plastikes Karekles, and the Josquin Singers of B.A.C.H. Cities she has performed in include Athens, San Francisco, Oakland, London, Isle of Wight, Ixtapa (Mexico), Brussels (Belgium), Istanbul, Luxembourg, Lesbos (Greece) and counting. Favorite venues include the National Theatre in London, the Green Note in Camden, ODC Theatre in San Francisco and 1002 Nihtes in Athens.
Career highlights as a vocalist include the dance production of Rebetiko with Yannis Adoniou’s KUNST-STOFF and music by Minos Matsas, with shows in Berlin and San Francisco and the film score for the Spanish film De Tu Ventana a la mia directed by Paula Ortiz with music composed by Avshalom Caspi. Katerina was born in San Francisco and raised in Athens, Greece. After completing her Bachelor of Arts in Classical Civilizations from UC Berkeley, she built her career in Arts Administration and Marketing. She has been living in London since 2009, where she completed her Masters in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Music at City University and currently works as a performing arts manager.
Ellie Falaris Ganelin is a flutist and music director who is classically trained and welcomes other traditions into the fold, including jazz, Latin, Balkan and klezmer music. She is active as a performer of chamber and orchestral music in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is committed to making classical music inviting and accessible for all as an ambassador and performer for the Awesöme Orchestra Collective. For the past decade, she has been the director of the Kombos Collective, which aims to inspire, educate, and challenge audiences through innovative programming. Ellie received her B.A. in Music from the University of Maryland, where she also holds a B.A. in Journalism and a Minor in French.
Emma Selmon is DC Area-based clarinetist pursuing her doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is active in the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Orchestra and Maryland Opera Studio orchestra. She is a founding member of glass trees, a flexible-instrumentation ensemble specializing in contemporary music and non-traditional concert experiences. She was a 2022 contemporary performance fellow at the Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, Maine, where she performed clarinet and bass clarinet on the premieres of 15 new chamber ensemble works. Selmon holds a master’s in clarinet performance from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s in clarinet performance from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music in Ohio. She currently studies clarinet with Robert DiLutis and serves as the clarinet studio graduate assistant at UMD. Beyond her musical pursuits, Selmon previously served as a reporter and news editor with the Gratiot County Herald, an Ithaca, Michigan-based weekly circulation newspaper with a readership of 11,000.
Mary-Victoria Voutsas is a “powerful” and “enthralling pianist” (Washington City Paper). She has toured extensively and performed at many notable venues including the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and Terrace Theatre, the Lisner Auditorium, and a number of embassies. Ms. Voutsas is the visiting Artist-in-Residence for Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts and has accompanied the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as notable artists such as Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alison Krauss. Ms. Voutsas also has experience in harpsichord performance, choral conducting, and has studied prepared piano with Dr. Laurie Hudicek. Ms. Voutsas earned her degrees with concentrations in Piano Performance (M.M.) under Dr. Nikita Fitenko, Pedagogy (B.M.) from Catholic University and American University. She has performed masterclasses and recitals for several acclaimed pianists, including Yuri Didenko, Dr. Joseph Banowetz, and Christopher O’Reilly. In collaboration with the Kombos Collective, she released the album, “The Moon is Red: A Tribute to Manos Hadjidakis,” as well as “Hellenic Song: A Musical Migration,” which features the first recording of solo piano music by Vasily Kalafati.
Ms. Voutsas performed for the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birthday celebration, and the inaugural concert of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. She was praised in an article later that her “performance enthralled the listeners making the evening a wonderful tribute.” Ms. Voutsas has participated in numerous competitions such as the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev Piano Competition, and holds several awards including the Watkins Prize (2011), and Director’s Musician of Achievement (2013) at American University. She has performed as soloist for the Rob Kapilow “What Makes It Great?” program in 2013 accompanied by the Peabody Chamber Orchestra, as well as with the American University Orchestra (2014) conducted by Yaniv Dinur.
Ms. Voutsas resides in the Washington D.C. area, where she teaches piano and theory, and performs regularly. She earned her degrees with concentrations in Piano Performance (M.M.) under Dr. Nikita Fitenko from Catholic University and under Yuliya Gorenman at American University (B.A.). She is completing her D.M.A. at Catholic University, her dissertation is focused on the piano works of Manos Hadjidakis (Hatzidakis) and the history and influence of rebetika music in Hellenic song.
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Track Listing:
1. Apo Xeno Topo / From a Foreign Land
2. Menexedes kai Zouboulia / Violets and Hyacinths
3. Mortissa Smyrnia / Smyrniote Rebel
4. Kaigomai Kaigomai / I’m Burning, I’m Burning
5. Na Zei Kaneis Sti Monaxia / To Live in Loneliness
6. San Apokliros Gyrizo / I Wander in Exile
7. Ti Se Melei Esenane / What’s It To You?
8. Sto ‘Pa Kai Sto Xanaleo / I’ve Told You Many Times
9. Feggari Magia Mou ‘Kanes / What Have You Done to Me, Magical Moon?
10. To Ouest / Ȉe West
11. Dimitroula Mou / My Dimitroula
12. Den Se Ȉelo Pia / I Don’t Want You Anymore
13. Ehe Geia Panagia / So Long, Virgin Mary
Artists:
Katerina Clambaneva (vocals), Ellie Falaris Ganelin (Ǽlute & alto Ǽlute), Emma Selmon (clarinet & bass clarinet), Mary-Victoria Voutsas (piano)
Guest artists:
*Anastasis Sarakatsanos (qanun), +Wesley Hornpetrie (cello), ^Anders Eliasson (percussion), #Costas Dafnis (mandolin)
Uproot is a program developed by Katerina Clambaneva and Ellie Falaris Ganelin.
All songs are arranged by Ellie Ganelin, except for Sto ‘Pa Kai Sto Xanaleo (arr. Costas Dafnis) and Feggari Magia Mou ‘Kanes (arr. Michael Malis).
Recorded and mixed by Blaine Misner, Cue Recording Studios. Vocal tracks recorded by Antonis Mikelis, A.Mu.Se Audio & Music Services. Mastering by Myles Boisen, Headless Buddha Mastering Labs.
Copyright @ 2024 by Kombos Collective
KombosMusic.com | @komboscollective