Europe Day Concert – Modo 130 with Nağme Yarkin – Traditional Greek music

The European Documentation Centreand the Vice-Rectorate for Research Policy at the University of Almería are organising, in collaboration with Clasijazz Almería, a concert to mark Europe Day – an event that has become a tradition for the centre, which remains committed to music as a means of bringing people together and a tool for achieving peace and solidarity.

Modo 130 alongside Nağme Yarkin

This year we have decided to focus on traditional Greek music with Modo 130, a musical ensemble founded by Christos Kanellos Malamás and David Ruiz in 2010 with the aim of performing musical tales – poems that follow a narrative theme, accompanied by a varied musical repertoire of different styles and origins. This repertoire includes music from the Middle East, jazz, classical music, Sephardic music and a cappella songs from the Greek and Turkish traditions, amongst others.

Over the years, the group has incorporated original compositions by Christos Kanellos and has developed a focus on experimentation and live musical creation. Currently, the duo—which occasionally collaborates with various artists, in this case featuring the renowned Turkish lyra (kemence) player Nağme Yarkin—is dedicated to performing a wide-ranging repertoire of Mediterranean, Greek and Turkish music, as well as their own compositions, always blended with live improvisation.

Their career spans more than a decade of numerous concerts, performances and multidisciplinary creative projects throughout Spain. The group has also released two albums: “Anémis” and “Oración”, which reflect their unique style.

In this concert, they will perform traditional Greek music from various styles and regions, as well as some of Christos Kanellos’ own compositions that follow the same musical style.

Would you like to find out more about them?

• Christos Kanellos Malamás: A musician of Greek origin (Athens), specialising in the musical traditions of the eastern and western Mediterranean. His artistic work focuses on Byzantine and Ottoman chant, Sephardic and medieval music, modal improvisation, and the reconstruction and performance of historical instruments.

He has built an international career as a performer, researcher and instrument maker, taking part in concerts, festivals, conferences and artistic projects in Spain, Greece, Portugal and other European countries.

His work combines musical performance with historical research and artistic creation, exploring the relationship between oral tradition, notation and instrumental practice. He is the founder and director of the Escuela de Música Modal, where he teaches music theory, instrumental technique, singing and improvisation.

• David Ruiz: A percussionist specialising in music for theatre, traditional music, fusion, folk and early music, with an extensive repertoire and over 19 years’ experience performing live and in the studio.

Self-taught, David has been active for over 20 years in all kinds of musical ensembles, performing on stages across five continents. With a keen interest in the fusion of timbres and the creation of soundscapes, David combines techniques from a wide variety of percussion instruments, seeking sound through experimentation and boldly blending the wildest rhythms with the most subtle and precise performance.

Over a decade on stage, over a decade of professional practice and formal research, both as a studio and live percussionist specialising in theatre, as well as developing other parallel activities: composition, arrangements and lyric writing, musical direction on various projects, music production, programming musical content for theatre, management, teaching percussion, etc.

• Nağme Yarkın: Kemenche player, composer and academic based in Istanbul. Born into a family of musicians, she began her musical training at the age of three with piano lessons. She completed her undergraduate studies in composition at the State Conservatory of Istanbul University, where she subsequently obtained both her master’s degree and her PhD.

In 2018, she spent a semester at Francesco Vittadini (Italy) studying composition as part of her doctoral research. As a performer and composer, Dr Yarkın has gained international recognition for her distinctive synthesis of Anatolian musical traditions and jazz. Through the Istanbul kemenche—an instrument native to the city—she introduces traditional Turkish music to international audiences, whilst bringing innovative approaches to jazz fusion. Her artistic output includes original compositions and arrangements, which she performs in concerts and recordings.

Together with her brother, pianist Baturay Yarkın, she founded the Yarkın Duo and the Yarkın Quartet. These ensembles have performed at numerous international festivals and concert halls and have led workshops across Europe, the United States and Canada. In 2022, Dr Yarkın released Künh, the first polyphonic album for the Istanbul kemenche, consisting entirely of her own compositions and representing a pioneering contribution to the repertoire of this instrument. She served as a visiting professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, during the 2022–2023 academic year. Since 2012, Dr Yarkın has been a member of the teaching staff at the Istanbul University State Conservatory, where she currently holds the title of associate professor.

Venue, date and time

The concert will take place at Clasijazz in Almería on 8 May at 10.00 pm.

Clasijazz will be offering a tasting of traditional Greek products before the concert begins.

Admission will be by invitation only, issued by the European Documentation Centre. To obtain an invitation, an email containing instructions will be sent to the entire university community.