5th Medieval Agia Napa's Festival 2010

For the fifth consecutive year the Municipality of Ayia Napa organizes the Medieval Festival.

For a whole week the visitors will have the opportunity to attend and enjoy various original and innovative performances within the idyllic site of the medieval monastery of Ayia Napa.

Programme

Saturday 16 October 2010
Time: 20:00

Despina Olympiou
Leonidas Pitsillides
"Cyprida Voice" Music Ensemble
Concert "Love’s Labors"

Arranged and directed by: Admitos Pitsillides

Presenting short musical stories concerning the tribulations of love through the songs of Cypriot tradition. Music and songs from the medieval times up until the works of contemporary Cypriot composers and lyrics writers, with the Cypriot musical colors having been arranged in classical, traditional and contemporary ways.

The Band:
Theodoros Krassides – Flute
Thanassis Athanassiou – Violin
Evgenia Karapataki – Cello
Svetlana Todorova – Accordion
Michalis Minas – Lute
Admitos Pitsillides – Guitar
Antonia Tsolaki – Double Bass
Rodos Panagiotou - Percussion

Sunday 17 October 2010
Time: 20:00

Daughters of Elvin Medieval Music & Dance Theatre

Daughters of Elvin are one of Britain’s most exciting and innovative medieval groups. They were formed in 1996 with the aim of presenting early music in a new and exciting way and of reaching as diverse an audience as possible. Evoking the spirit of Medieval Europe with music, dance and fantastical masked creatures they give powerful displays of color movement and sound. Hear them perform pilgrim songs from 14th century Spain, love ballads from the 13th century France, songs about the weather from 13th century England and court dances from 14th century Italy, played on an exotic array of authentic instruments which include hurdy gurdy, bagpipes, dulcimer, gothic harp, pipe & salterio, recorders and percussion.

Monday 18 October 2010
Time: 20:00

The Going-ons at the Courtyard
Cultural Association "Rythmos"

Join the trip through time and imagine yourself in the center of a medieval royal courtyard, awaiting the glorious arrival of the King and Queen. Experience the colorful past, the lives they led and their fabulous feasts. Get to know the culture and tradition of that era through the art of dancing.

Tuesday 19 October 2010
Time: 20:00

From Byzantium to the World Wars

The musical tradition is a path 1200 years long. From the oldest folk songs, the “Acritic – epic” songs to the newer “songs of the World Wars”. Chants, laments, dirges, lullabies, love songs and more.

In this musical journey five female voices blend:
Vasiliki Hatziadamou
Loukia Ignatiou
Christina Tselepou
Demetra & Xenia Hadjimichael

Selection of songs, orchestration, artistic direction: Michalis Hadjimichael

Wednesday 20 October 2010
Time: 20:00

Cyprus & Crete – music of the islands

The Traditional Music Group "Oi Las" and its eight musicians play mainly traditional instruments like tampouras, tampoutsia and pithkiavli, showing their love and respect towards tradition and towards the traditional music of Cyprus. The repertoire of the group is authentic traditional music of the island, which goes back to the age of Homer (songs named "Voices" and "Tsiatista") to the Medieval Period (songs named "Digenis Akritas" and "Arodafnousa") and reaches the first decades of the 20th century (song named "Apsentis"). The repertoire also includes religious songs, epic, lamentations etc. In tonight’s performance two excellent musicians from Crete will be joining the group: Giorgos Giannadakis playing the Cretan Lyra with songs from Crete (Rizitika and Akritika) and Giorgos Manolakis with the lute.

The members of the Traditional Music Group "Oi Las" are:
Loucas Zymaras – Lute/vocals
Nicos Zymaras – Violin
Loucas Georgiou – Violin
Vasos Nicolaou – Lute/Pithkiavli/vocals
Savvas Nicolaou – Tampouras
Michalis Tsiarlis – Tampoutsia/vocals
Evripides Dikaios – Percussions
Athena Kallenou - Vocals

Thursday 21 October 2010
Time: 20:00

Clamor et Gaudium Ensemble

The Clamor et Gaudium Ensemble was created in 1996 mainly to promote ancient music and, in particular, medieval and renaissance music. Recently it also plays folk tunes, which are proposed to make people dance, mainly Galician and Breton melodies. The musical instruments used are philological: badpipes (Galician badpipes, Italian bagpipes from Bergamo and Emilia), shawm and percussions (medieval long drum, davul). Clamor et Gaudium Ensemble took part in the most important historical re-enactments of its country. Outside Italy the ensemble attended a theatrical performance in Porec (Croatia), it was in Luxembourg to celebrate the foundation of the Gran Ducato, in Friesach (Austria), Horsens (Denmark), Rhodes (Greece), Bellinzona (Switzerland), Ljubljana (Slovenia) for the big medieval resorts.

Friday 22 October 2010
Time: 20:00

Music from Asia Minor
Gianni Saouli – Gorkem Devrim Saoulis ensemble
Michalis Hadjimichael "East Mediterranean Sea" ensemble

In the course of centuries Asia Minor was among other a center of culture. Benefited from the Byzantine musical scales it gave birth to many great songs. It is rightly described as "the mother of our music" because it enriched the musical tradition of the Greek area and the surrounding nations. Tonight the ensemble will perform songs from Asia Minor, old rebetika mostly by unknown composers, Pontiac and Cypriot traditional songs.