Christos Barbas

Instruments:

Ney

Traditions:

, , , Greek, Contemporary, Ottoman & Turkish

Christos Barbas is a multi-instrumentalist and composer and one of the most multifaceted and creative musicians coming from Greece. From an early age, he studied the recorder, baroque music, harmony, counterpoint and later completed his studies of Western music in 2002. He studied Musicology and Ethnomusicology (Mmus) in the Department of Music at the University of Aristotelio (Thessaloniki) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). Since 2003, he has focused on the study of the ney, Sufi and classical Ottoman music with outstanding performers in Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. At the same time, he studies and plays several instruments from different musical cultures, such as kaval, piano, bansuri and irish whistles etc.

His main interest is a creative approach to music, especially the study of older music, sacred and popular, from the point of view that underline their timelessness and possibilities for people to create, rather than the rigidity of authenticity itself. He communicates this goal through the interpretation of old music, his own compositions, participating in various projects with other arts and teaching in seminars and workshops.

He composes for different formations in a variety of styles, including music for contemporary dance, theatre, cinema and modal music. He has released 8 albums of original music (Yeden, Neda, Magnanimus Trio & Murat Aydemir, Peppe Frana). Along with his own groups, he collaborates with some of the most prominent performers and creators of traditional and contemporary music, such as Ross Daly & Labyrinth, Zohar Fresco, Efrén López, L’Ham de Foc, Evgenios Voulgaris, Milo ke Mandarini Quartet, Çihan Turkoğlou, Anja Lechner, Thomas Strønen and more. He has participated in concerts worldwide and recording extensively in the wider field of contemporary modal music with companies, such as An Music, Felmay IT and ECM Records.

He has taught ney and kaval, interpretation, improvisation and composition in modal music at the University of Popular Music and Traditional Arts (Greece), and also in Macedonia (Thessaloniki). He teaches musical workshops at Labyrinth in Crete and in other cultural centers throughout Europe and is the Artistic Director of Labyrinth Catalunya.