After a year of living apart, it is time for brass, winds and all horns to get together and play again. We will learn, play and arrange together, pieces from New Orleans Brass Bands to Egyptian Orchestras, as well as Greece and the Balkans. We will explore the expressive power of wind instruments and work on individual and group improvisation. One goal, make it groove!

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Fausto Sierakowski was born in 1988 in Paris and grew up in Rome, Italy. In 2009, he graduated in classical saxophone from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory. In 2012, he obtained a Masters Degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory. In parallel to academic studies, he has studied the music of the Balkans and Eastern Europe, taking part in workshops with Adam Stinga (Moldavia), Manos Achalinotopoulos and Sokratis Sinopoulos (Greece). While in the US and upon his return to Europe in 2014, he has performed and recorded with musicians, such as Slavic Soul Party, Anthony Coleman, Joe Morris, Matt Darriau and Hayden Chisholm. In 2016, he moved to Greece in order to study Ottoman classical music with Evgenios Voulgaris. He currently lives in Athens.

In this seminar we will become familiarized with our voice through its coexistence with other voices. By using our voice in an ensemble context, we will experience mutual trust and acceptance, which are essential for the achievement of our common goal, that is, the performance of songs specially arranged for an acapella vocal ensemble.

Our repertoire will be drawn from the musical traditions of our broader region. We will first study the structural and stylistic characteristics of the songs and we will then work on simple arrangements of the same.

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Elena Xyda was born in Nicosia. She studied the piano, the oboe and singing as a child and teenager. During her studies in classical singing in Conservatori Superior de Musica del Liceu in Barcelona, she discovered the Eastern Mediterranean modal musical traditions, on which she eventually focused. For several years she participated in seminars held in Labyrinth Musical Workshop in Crete (such as Ottoman singing, Bulgarian singing, Persian music, rhythmic improvisation, lavta). She studied the lavta with Periklis Papapetropoulos and makam theory and practice with Harris Lambrakis. She also has extended experience in the Greek urban folk singing style of the period between the two World Wars and she has collaborated with renowned musicians both in Cyprus and in Greece. She is currently dedicated in teaching traditional singing and conducting Windcraft’s vocal ensemble as well as the traditional singing ensemble of the Ayioi Omoloyites Cultural Workshop.

Using musical instruments, idiophones and their voice, children from 8 year onward will participate in a unique orchestra conducted by Elli Michael, arranging and performing one of the most entertaining Cypriot children's songs. In a two-hour workshop we will experiment with our voice, we will make up our own lyrics, we will use our imagination in the orchestration, we will practice responding to the conductor's signals, we will improvise and finally we will present to our audience a unique musical result!  

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Elli Michael studied Ethnomusicology and Modern Greek Studies in Berlin. She is the director of Windcraft Music Centre in Nicosia, which specializes in the teaching of wind instruments. Since 2010 she is a dedicated saxophone instructor, as well as a Cypriot folk music researcher. In 2013 she founded the brass band “Windcraft Band”, where she acts as a lead saxophonist, conductor and arranger. She has performed in Cyprus and abroad with various groups and since 2017 she is a member of the Paphos Big Band. She is president of the Board of Directors of Windcraft Loud and the organizer and artistic director of the Windcraft Music Fest. In 2016 the Youth Board of Cyprus and Central Cooperative Bank rewarded her for her artistic contribution with the Youth Award in the category of Culture.  

Drumming is a fun way of working on synchronising the body’s rhythms, connecting the two hemispheres of the brain and stimulating new understanding on ourselves and our capabilities. Scientific research has proven that drumming reduces stress, strengthens immunity, reduces blood pressure, reduces pain and helps with socio-emotional disorders. To experience all the useful effects, it’s not enough listening to the game, you need to drum in person! Nothing beats the feeling of being in a djembe group, vibrating and releasing pent up energy! So join us in a 2-hour drumming workshop and ... feel the beat!

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Agni Sacca has been studying ethnic musical traditions since 1995. She has studied African drums, didgeridoo and frame drums and trained in Ghana, USA and Germany. Since 2013, she has been teaching the course of Instrumentology at the Benenzon International Academy and continues to teach African percussion and conduct workshops all over Cyprus. —Rhythm is a guiding force in our lives, be it in the way we breathe, speak, play or interact with others and drumming is one of the gateways into this amazing, essential world.