SEIKILO Ancient World Music
Ancient Lyre & Ney - Nikriz by Valentina Bellanova & Theodore Koumartzis
🔴 For more videos like this, subscribe to our channel:
https://www.youtube.com/seikilo?sub_confirmation=1
🟢 SEIKILO is on Spotify too! Follow us at https://open.spotify.com/artist/6BeEN6EDTHO3ezHBkN161X
"Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul." — Plato
"Nikriz" is an original composition for the ancient lyre and the ancient ney, inspired by the nikriz maqam, a powerful scale of Arabic classical music that can evoke nostalgia, a sense of introspection, and longing for the past.
Plato and Aristotle once said that different music scales evoke different emotions. Their theory, named "ethos," was infused in every ancient world music system, including Arabic classical music and its maqams. Nikriz is closely related to the Ancient Greek Phrygian mode, proving that music is a universal language that evokes similar emotions across different cultures.
In this video, Theodore Koumartzis performs on a LUTHIEROS ancient lyre, masterfully handcrafted in Greece, accompanying Valentina Bellanova on her ney.
⚫ Find the perfect lyre for you at https://luthieros.com/
🔵 Learn how to play the lyre and other ancient musical instruments at
https://lyreacademy.com
⚪ Check out Theodore's lyre at https://luthieros.com/product/the-dark-lyre-of-orpheus-the-lyre-of-the-underworld-9string-ancient-greek-lyre/
🎬 Directed by Nikolaos Koumartzis
The video session took place inside the tranquil COCO-MAT Berlin store.
🎙️ Who is Valentina?
Valentina Bellanova was born in Florence, Italy, where she later studied musicology and recorder. She then furthered her instrumental studies in Germany at the University of Music, Drama, and Media in Hanover, where she obtained her Soloist's Diploma.
She has been involved with classical Turkish and Arab music for several years, studying their respective aesthetics and theories. Her teachers of Ney and modal music include Ross Daly, Ömer Erdogdular, Kudsi Erguner, whereas she studied the recorder and Early Music with David Bellugi, Federico Maria Sardelli, and Ulrich Thieme.
She plays both the Turkish and the Arabic Ney and regularly performs these instruments in various projects (such as the National Theatre Thuringia, the NDR Radio Station in Hanover, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Philharmonie Berlin, etc.) and with various ensembles (like Husam Al Ali Ensemble, Almar'a: the Arab and Mediterranean Women Orchestra, etc.)
She's also the first European woman to perform the "Istanbul Sinfonie" by Fazil Say in Staatstheater Braunschweig, Scharoun Theater Wolfsburg, Solingen/Remscheid (with the Bergischen Symphonikern), and the Mönchengladbach (with the Niederrheinischen Symphonikern).
Her debut Solo album, titled "Eremos," released in December 2021, embodies her various musical and cultural backgrounds and experiences, including early western and modal music, experimentation and tradition, medieval music, radical improvisation, maqamat and deep investigation of their respective languages.
🎙️ Who is Theodore?
Theodore Koumartzis is the youngest brother of the Koumartzis family. Being part of the family's endeavour since its early stage, he soon came to be an inspiring top-notch lyre player, constantly learning and experimenting with musicians around the world.
He is the founder of the PAUSIS Project, a curator at the SEIKILO Museum of Ancient Music in Greece (Thessaloniki), and an integral part of LUTHIEROS Music Instruments.
🎧 Listen to Theodore's music at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izlnCWJEjes&list=PLcMWkAbRJunFz_TO-e_kw2k3Z18T1TESr
👍 Follow us on Facebook:
https://el-gr.facebook.com/seikilo/
❤️ Follow Thanasis Kleopas:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXYixuJ0291cpPs4G82KagA
❤️ Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/luthieros/?hl=en
🔴 For more videos like this, subscribe to our channel on youtube by clicking here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5mCqBulD2KzLugC1lEEedA?sub_confirmation=1
🟢 SEIKILO is on Spotify too! Follow us at https://open.spotify.com/artist/6BeEN6EDTHO3ezHBkN161X
