Ofer Ganor 'Cyprus Tour 2011'

One of the greatest Jazz Masters, Ofer Ganor, is touring Cyprus in January 2011 with a star studded line up.

Line up:
Ofer Ganor: Guitar
George Krasides: Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone
Irenaeos Koullouras: Contrabass
George Koulas: Drums

Biographies

OFER GANOR
www.oferganor.com
Ofer Ganor is an accomplished jazz guitarist who has studied, recorded and played with great jazz masters such as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, James Moody and many others.

Born 1970 in Jerusalem, Israel he began his musical studies with private teachers Justin London, Steve Peskoff and Jean Claude Jones. He completed his B.M. from Berklee College of Music while receiving numerous awards and scholarships including the American Israel Cultural Foundation Award, Stephen Hollander Award, Guitar Department Award and a Downbeat Magazine up and coming musicians feature.

He continued his studies in a two year program at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute studying under many famed jazz masters such as Wynton Marsalis, Clark Terry, Jackie Mclean, Jimmy Heath and Jimmy Ponder. As part of the program he has traveled to India to represent the U.S. with his classmates along with Herbie Hancock and played in the King of Thailand’s 60th anniversary celebrations with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. While at the institute he also completed his M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music and received the Gunther Schuller Award.

After completing his studies he has moved to New York where he gained experience playing in many clubs and concerts with musicians such as Dwayne Eubanks, Peter Bernstein, Liz Diamond, Avi Leibovich and many others. He has recorded with Ron Carter for his Building Jazz Bass Lines book with an all star rhythm section that included Mulgrew Miller on piano and Lewis Nash on Drums.

During that period he composed music for theatrical productions of Tempest and The Golem at Yale University as well as a film score for Caves of the Mind. He also played on the soundtrack for the feature film Hugo Pool composed by Danilo Perez.

In 2000 he returned to Israel and has worked with many local artists and has spent time teaching and passing on his knowledge and experience to a younger generation of musicians. He has given master classes in Israel, Cyprus and France and accompanied visiting jazz artists such as Jim Rotondi and Peter Bernstein.

Ofer Ganor has recorded his debut album as a solo artist Solo Guitar featuring his original compositions for guitar and has two projects soon to be out. The first, a marvelous performance of a duet with pianist Omri Mor at the 2006 Tel Aviv Jazz Festival soon to be released, the other a quartet recording with Willie Jones III on drums, Aaron Goldberg on Piano and Yonatan Levi on bass.

Gorge Krasides
George Krasidis has received a BA in Music in Saxophone Performance from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he had the opportunity to study saxophone with Dr. Keith Young. During 1997-98 he attended Berklee College of Music after receiving a scholarship from the institution and at the same time he received private lessons from the world renowned jazz saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. George Krasidis has co-operated with several American, European and Greek distinguished musicians. Except his career as a performer, George Krasidis is also working as a music educator.

Irenaeos Koullouras
Well-known contrabass player. He was born in Limassol in 1965. From 1975 to 1991 he worked as bass player in Cyprus, London and Berlin playing with many important bands and artists. In 1994 he moved to USA where he enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied contrabass with Ron Carter and Charlie Banacos until 2001. During his stay in USA he traveled and performed in many cities working with famous musician and playing various musical styles. Especially, he performed regularly in Boston and New York with jazz and ethnic bands. From 2001 he moved to Athens-Greece where he is working up to now. He performs very often in Greece and Europe with professional musicians, singers and composers such as: Christos Leontis, Nikos Xydakis, Nena Venetsanou, Eleftheria Arvanitaki as well as with the foreigners Gary Burton, Arturo Sandoval, Larry Harlow, Theodosi Spassov, Offer Ganor and others. In Greece he has been teaching contrabass at the Nakas Music School and works as a session musician in various recording studios. Recently has performed for four weeks with the well-known Greek composer Nikos Xydakis. These last live recordings of Xydakis were just published by his record company in a box of five CD’s. Ireneos Koullouras is working with Evagoras Karageorgis for the last two years in a Cypriot music project. They take traditional music and try to create new boundaries bringing to the music new elements that derive from other styles such as jazz, improvisation etc.

George Koulas
1988 - 1990 He studied in Germany ( Bonn University ).
1990 -1994 He studied in Boston, U.S.A There he took lessons with Alan Dowson, Jon Hazila, Skip Hadden and Dave Dicenso and performed with various local artists in different styles.
In 1995, George relocated in Holland, where he graduated from the Rotterdam Conservatory. In 1999 he got his BA and in 2001 MA. During his studying years he was performing and recording with local and
international artists like: Annelies de Jong, Ed Verhoeff, Ben van den Dungen, Paulino Vieira, Claudio Roditi, Larry Harlow, etc.
1997-2001 he created a private drum school in cooperation with Annelies de Jong
1999-2001 he was teaching part time at Rotterdam Conservatory
1999-2001 he was main drum, percussion teacher at Utrecht Music School
2000 he was part of the band that represented the Rotterdam Conservatory at IAJE Conference in New Orleans.
2001 he was awarded with a scholarship from Rotterdam Conservatory for further studies in New York
From 2002, George lives in Cyprus. He has been performing and recording with various artists from Greece and Cyprus like: George Dalaras, Cyprus State Orchestra, Diastasis, Faidros Kavallaris, Blink.
From 2002 he has been teaching in Kiriakidis Music School in Limassol
From 2003 he has been playing with Irineos Trio band and Havana Session band.
With these two bands he is regularly performing in Cyprus and Greece with various known musicians from Cyprus and abroad like: Offer Ganor, Andreas Georgiu, Evagoras Karageorgis, Jens Kerkoff, Eric Durrer, Lukas van Merwijk, Gilad Azmond.