Jazz Chronicles: Harper Xylouri

Modern-day jazz is conversing with various different musical genres, evolving and looking at the past with creative irreverence, while at the same time allowing room for those who wish to remain “clean,” traditional. It is constantly renewing its audience, attracting new believers.

Seeing jazz as a “music of the here and now,” the SNFCC’s Jazz Chronicles concert series returns to the Lighthouse in November and December, hosting concerts by two domestic bands who are asserting that “jazz is striking back”: Kepler is Free and Harper Xylouri. Deep-pitched winds, elegant keys and suggestive strings, against an electronica backdrop gluing it all together, are the ingredients of the exciting mix.

Harper Xylouri 

Familiar Greek sounds and Western jazz music, traditional roots and avant-garde experimentation, typical Cretan timbre coupled with baritone Cretan lyra and electric harp — Niki Xylouri and Maria-Christina Harper. Accompanied by George Koutras in electric and 12-string guitar, the two have created a very special sound that obliterates the distance between past, present and future. They converse with traditional tunes, rebetika and lullabies, creating mystical soundscapes based on the warmth of acoustic instruments without snubbing the filters of effects. 
 
After all, they both boast impressive credentials. Niki Xylouri (daughter of Psarantonis and niece of Nikos Xylouris) literally grew up surrounded by music in her home village of Anogia, Crete. Even before setting out on her solo career, she had already participated in the festival for the fall of the Berlin Wall and in Manos Hadjidakis's Musical August, alongside her father. Maria-Christina Harper, with influences from the Greek musical tradition, the experimental scene and jazz music, has appeared at the Royal Albert Hall and has collaborated with a number of renowned musicians, ranging from Soft Cell to rapper/activist Potent Whisper.

Watch Niki Xylouri and Maria-Christina Harper videos

Sunday 11/12, 21.00

LIGHTHOUSE

Advance Ticket Sales Points:

• Online on Ticket Services website 
• By phone: 210 7234567 (Ticket Services)
• At the Ticket Services Box Office (Panepistimiou 39, Athens)

Online tickets pre-sales (Members)
Online tickets pre-sales (Public)

Pre-sale for Members starts on Tuesday 18/10 at 12.00 (limited number of tickets).
Pre-sale for the public starts on Wednesday 19/10 at 12.00.

Ticket Prices: 
General entrance  12€, reduced 8€

Concession tickets of 8€ are available to students, people aged 65+, minors up to 17 years old, the unemployed, companions of Persons with Disabilities, multi-child families and residents of the Municipality of Kallithea.

On the day of the event, concession ticket holders will be asked to show their ID, as well as supporting documentation (student card, unemployment card, family status certificate for multi-child parents, utility bill for residents of Kallithea)

Free tickets are available to Persons with Disabilities, by contacting the call center at 210 7234567 or via email at info@ticketservices.gr and by showing their ID and certification of disability on the day of the event.

Important information:

• Doors open at 20.00
• We suggest that you be at the location no later than 30' minutes before the commencement of the event.
• Entrance will be possible up to 10 minutes before the event's commencement.
• Pre-sale is required. No order of priority will be available on-site.
• All SNFCC areas are accessible to people with disabilities.
• For more information or clarifications, please contact the SNFCC switchboard on 216 8091000.

This event comes under a grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Alongside the majority of its events, which are free thanks to a series of SNF grants, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center also organizes a number of events with affordable tickets, thus enriching its income sources and securing its long-term financial integrity.