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Biographies of musicians. Yurdal Tokcan Yurdal Tokcan is being regarded as one of the finest oud players in the world today by many music authorities. His style combines older traditions with many new stylistic innovations, which are also present in his playing of the fretless guitar. His many new compositions combine traditional rich melodies with polyphonic textures performed on Turkish classical instruments. Tokcan was born in Ordu on the Black Sea cost of Turkey in 1966. He is a 1998 graduate of Istanbul Technical University’s Turkish Music Government Conservatory. While completing his masters program there, he joined the faculty as an oud instructor. Tokcan continues to teach, sharing his knowledge, experience, and technique with Turkish and foreign students. In 1990, he joined the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Istanbul Government Music Ensemble under the artistic direction of Tanburi Necdet Yasar. As a member of this ensemble, Yurdal performed in France, Holland, Belgium, and Spain. He is a member of the Istanbul Fasil Ensemble and the Istanbul Tasavvuf Music Ensemble, and a founding member of the Istanbul Sazendeleri (Musicians of Istanbul), a group dedicated to presenting Turkish instrumental works. Tokcan has participated in many recording sessions and has performed internationally, in Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Japan, Turkmenistan, Israel, Tunisia, Lebanon, USA, Bosnia, and Northern Cyprus. As a soloist, Tokcan performed in the Netherlands with the Amsterdam Percussion Group and Chamber Orchestra in a program titled European Music Around Oud, and with the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra in Turkey, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium. Tokcan joined Burhan Ocal (percussion), Goksel Baktagir (kanun), Selim Guler (kemence), and Arif Erdebil (ney) in a French concert, the recording of which won the 1998 “Best Ethnic Album” in France. Tokcan has played in many of ney virtuoso Kudsi Erguner’s ensembles, both in Turkey and abroad. He performed in Israel with Group Baharat and with long time collaborator, kanun player Goksel Baktagir. Recently, Tokcan has been recording and performing with Israeli Ladino artist Hadass Pal Yarden. His work can also be heard on “Bende Can” (Inner Soul), an album of his original compositions. Tokcan represented Turkey in several international festivals and celebrations, including the 3rd International Oud and Lavta Festival in Dresden, Germany and the 2002 International Oud Meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece (along with oud players Ara Dinkjian, Simon Shaheen, Haig Yazdjian, and Omar Bashir). In 2003, he performed at the Oud Festival in Jordan, gave two concerts at the Arabic Music Festival at the Cairo Opera Hall, and performed during celebrations of the 2003 Turkish Year in Japan. Tokcan was invited to perform in Kudus in a pan-Mediterranean music festival (along with Selim Guler, Ross Daly, Zohar Fresko and Yinon Muallem). He has performed with the Mercan Dede Ensemble in various festivals, including the Akbank International Jazz Festival in Istanbul. Tokcan’s recent activities include continued participation in Turkish Year in Japan during 2004 with Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, Istanbul Sazendeleri (Musicians of Istanbul) has played in Crete (August 2005), Estonia (October 2005), Sweden (April 2006), Syria (May 2006), Tokyo, Japan (Turkish year events closing concert, May 2004), and concert with Ross Daly in Bursa, Turkey (November 2005). Tokcan also performed a duo concert at the International Oud Festival in Jerusalem (December 2005) with Israeli percussionist Yinon Muallem. Goksel Baktagir Born in Kırklareli in 1966. Began his music education at the age of eight, under the supervision of his father Muzaffer Baktagir. Graduated in 1988 from ITU State School Of Art For Turkish Music where he was registered in 1983. A year later, he started his graduate study at the same school. Göksel Baktagir, who began to compose during his studentship in the consercvatory, has a hundred and forty compositions; thirty-five vocal and a hundred and five intrumental art-works. Baktagir has been studying on the “left hand” technique that is unique to him since 1984 along with other techniques in the performance of tehe zither. Recognized as one of the leading artists of our time, in traditional performance of the zither, he evaluated all opportunities and limits of the instrument, which is originally a Turkish music instrument and broadened in giving superb Works in some genres such as New Age and Jazz and gave concerts with various western Jazz Groups. Along with his primal appointment in State Turksh Music Group of İstanbul, he also performs in İstanbul Fasıl Group and İstanbul Sufi Music Group. He participated in “International Rabat Festival”in Morocco and. “Baş Çarşı Festival”in Sarajevo and carried out 7 Cd and casette Works. In the recent years, he gave lectures in Mimar Sinan University State School of Art. He is giving lectures in Haliç University. Ross Daly www.rossdaly.gr Many years before what we call “World Music” appeared on the scene, certain individuals had already understood the enormous value and vast variety of the world’s various musical traditions and had dedicated their lives to their study. One such person is Ross Daly. Although of Irish descent, Ross Daly does not really fit into any particular ethnic stereotype given that his life has been spend in many different parts of the world and his home for the last 35 years is the island of Crete in Greece. Ross Daly, at a very early age, discovered that music was, in his own words, “the language of my dialogue with that which I perceive to be sacred”. This dialogue eventually led him to the great modal traditions of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent where he finally found the musical archetypes that he had been searching for all his life. In these traditions he encountered music which was not merely a vehicle of self-expression, but which was able to take one beyond what one normally perceived to be the boundaries of one’s self into other trans-personal realms of experience. This discovery changed everything in Ross Daly’s life and he subsequently gave up all other activities and dedicated his life to the study of the innermost secrets of these musical traditions as well as to the art of composition. He subsequently travelled extensively, studying under many of the world’s greatest masters of modal traditions. Since 1975 he has been based on the island of Crete where he is universally recognized as one of the foremost experts on the island’s rich musical tradition. He is also especially well known and respected for his ability to bring artists of different and seemingly unrelated traditions together in collaborations of unique quality and depth. In 1982 he established the Labyrinth Musical Workshop which is today situated in the village of Houdetsi 20 kms south of the capital city of Herakleion. The Musical Workshop Labyrinth (www.labyrinthmusic.gr) is a unique educational institution dedicated to the study of the world’s modal musical traditions and every year Ross Daly and his colleagues organize an impressive number of seminars and master-classes which are taught by many of the world’s greatest master-musicians. Each year hundreds of students from all over the world arrive in Houdetsi in order to study with some of the most renowned teachers of modal music from all over the world. Ross Daly’s impressive collection of more than 250 instruments which he has collected over the years during his travels is also permanently on exhibition in the building of Labyrinth. After many years of intensive training in a variety of musical traditions, Ross Daly turned his attention largely to composition drawing heavily on all of the knowledge which he acquired during his long apprenticeships. Today he has released more than thirty five albums of his own compositions as well as of his own arrangements of traditional melodies that he collected during his travels. The island of Crete in Greece still provides a base for his personal and musical research as he continues travelling around the world performing his music. Ross Daly has performed in many important venues and festivals such as: Migration Festival, Taipei, Taiwan (2006), International Lute Festival, Tetouan, Morocco (2006), Madrid Summer Festival, Sabatini Gardens, Spain (2006), International Festival, Warsaw, Poland (2006), Manresa Festival , Barcelona,Spain (2006), Athens Concert Hall (1993, 2006), National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland(2005), Konzerthaus Mozart Saal, Vienna, Austria (2005), Thessaloniki Concert Hall (2002), San Francisco World Music Festival, U.S.A (2005), State Theatre Company, Adelaide, Australia,(2005), Theatre de la Ville, Paris, France (1992-93, 2002,2003,2005, 2008), Festival de Saint Chartier, France(2003), Municipal concert hall, Kayseri, Turkey (2006) Skala Aglantza Nicosia, Cyprus (2005), Urkult Festival, Sweden(2003), Passionskirche, Berlin (1994,95,96), Rudolstadt Festival, Germany (2002), Aarhus, Denmark(1997), Huset theatre, Ahlborg, Denmark (1995-97), Copanhagen, Denmark (1995-97, 2003), Les Nuits Atypiques Festival, Langon, France (1995), Nikos Kazantzakis Theater, Herakleion, Crete 1996, 1999, 2001, 2008), Sodern Theatre Stockholm, Sweden (2004), Archaeological Museum, Madrid, Spain (1998-99, 2001), Festival of Murcia, Spain (1999), Isle of Wight Festival (2000), Oslo Cathedral (2004), Cemal Resit Rey Conser Salonu, Istanbul, Τurkey (1997, 2005, 2006), World Music Festival, Skopje, FYROM (1999, 2003), Lycabbetus theatre, Athens (1987,91,93,98), Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, U.K (1998-2000-2), Purcell Room, London (2007), Clarinet Festival, Bretagne (2008), Jerusalem Oud Festival (2008), WDR, Munich, Germany (1999), WDR Wuppertal, Germany(1992), Protestant Church, Brussels, Belgium (2001), Luxemburg Concert Hall (1992, 1994), San Sebastien Festival, Spain (2008), Nuremberg, Germany (1992, 2006), Cairo Opera House (2006), Emirates Palace Theater (2006, 2007), Frankfurt, Germany (1992), Epidaurus Theatre, Greece, Herodion Theatre Athens, Greece (1992, 1998), Bourges, France (2008) Al Dhafra Concert Hall, Abu Dhabi (2008), Rainforest World Music Festival, Sarawak, Malaysia (2008), and many others. In Summer 2004 he was the artistic director of the cultural program of the Olympic Games for the Olympic city of Heraklion on the island of Crete, titled “Crete, Music Crossroads”. He organized and artistically supervised 15 concerts with the participation of 300 musicians from all over the world. Amongst others there were musicians of international fame as : Jordi Savall, Eduardo Niebla, Huun Huur Tu, Habil Aliev, Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan, Mohammad Rahim Khushnawaz, Trio Chemirani, Adel Selameh and many others. Today, Ross Daly continues travelling and performing in Greece and abroad whilst simultaneously directing the Musical Workshop “Labyrinth” in the village of Houdetsi on Crete.(www.labyrinthmusic.gr) Kelly Thoma Kelly Thoma was born in Piraeus in 1978. Since 1995, she has been studying the lyra with Ross Daly and three years later she started travelling with him and his group, “Labyrinth”, participating in concerts in Europe, Asia, Australia and the U.S. she has taken part in many projects with musicians from various different traditions from other countries. Being a member of “Labyrinth” and Labyrinth Musical Workshopshe has had the chance to meet many important musicians such as the Trio Chemirani, Omer Erdogdular, Derya Turkan, Zohar Fresco, Pedram Khavar Zamini, Dhruba Ghosh, Ballake Sissoko, Erdal Erzincan, Mehmet Erenler, Hossein Arman,Yurdal Tokcan, Ustad Mohammed Rahim Khushnawaz and many more. I participate in many of Ross Daly’s projects : Ross Daly Quartet, Seyir, Iris, White Dragon, Labyrinth Modal Ensemble (…) as well as in TOKSO string quartet, (with Anne Hytta, Sigrun Eng and Eleonore Billy). I have graduated from the English Literature department of the Athens University as well as from the ”Rallou Manou” Dance School. Her first album titled Anamkhara was recently released by Seistron Music. It is comprised of seven of her own compositions with the participation of great masters Zohar Fresco, Efren Lopez, Pedram Khavar Zamini, Ahmet Erdogdular and Ross Daly. www.myspace.com/kellythoma ZOHAR FRESCO Born in Israel to a family of Turkish descent, Zohar Fresco began playing percussion instruments at a very young age. He swiftly became enamored with Oriental music and began to play with older musicians who had immigrated to Israel from Arab countries. His exceptional musical curiosity and his interest in a wide range of styles have led him to perform with many artists in Israel and abroad. At the age of twenty-one he joined Bustam Abraham. He is also a member of Ziryab Trio and of Arabandi. A small sample of his international credits, apart from the above mentioned groups, include both recordings and performances with renowned composers Phillip Glass, Glen Velez, and Zakir Hussain. Zohar is an integral part of the recordings and worldwide performances of the internationally acclaimed singer Noa. In addition to this, he is a teacher and head of the Oriental percussion department at the Jerusalem Music Academy. Zohar Fresco is a virtuoso of many percussion instruments, and his performances with the darbuka and the frame drums (such as Bendir, Riqq, and Tar) have left audiences all over the world awestruck. After years of playing these instruments, he has developed original techniques that include influences of Arabic, Indian, Persian, and Turkish music, as well as Jazz. Zohar Fresco is undoubtedly one of the best and most sought after percussionists in the world, and a rising star on the international scene. www.zoharfresco.com