Biography
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Born
16 March 1959 (age 65)
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Born In
Athens, Attiki, Greece
Born in Athens, Greece, Savina Yannatou (Σαβίνα Γιαννάτου) studied song with G.Georilopoulou at the National Conservatory and later with Spiros Sakkas at the Workshop of Vocal Art in Athens. She attended postgraduate studies (performance and communication skills) at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, with a scholarship awarded by the Mousigetis Foundation.
Her professional career as a singer started while still a student, when she sang for the very successful and until today highly respected daily program of the Greek National Radio 3 «Lillipoupoli» under the direction of the famous composer Manos Hadjidakis.
After that she interpreted «entechno» («artful») Greek songs, collaborating with well-known Greek composers and also covered contemporary opera and music. Later she focused on medieval, renaissance and barock music. In the early nineties she started experimenting with different vocal technics in free improvisation. Parallel to that she started a collaboration with a number of Thessaloniki-based musicians, who at that occasion founded the group «Primavera en Salonico», with which she recorded - and later performed - “Primavera en Salonico”-Sephardic Folk Songs from Salonica-, “Songs from the Mediterranean” , the “Virgin Maries of the World” and “Terra Nostra” (all released by LYRA/Musurgia Graeca, the second also in the USA by Sounds True under the name “Mediterranea” and the last one also by ECM).
Savina Yannatou has also composed her own music and songs (a.o. “Rosa das Rosas” and “Dreams of the mermaid” both released by Musurgia Graeca), as well as music for theater ( the latest being for Medea, performed in 1997 by the National Greek Theatre), video art and dance theater. All together she has brought out and/or participated in over 20 LPs and CDs.
Her professional career as a singer since 1979 and as a composer-singer-vocalist since 1986 has been covering a variety of musical kinds in performances, festivals, theater and TV production, recordings etc.
Having built her reputation as a singer of Baroque, renaissance, and early music, Savina Yannatou has increasingly veered toward avant-garde jazz and improvisational music. Accompanied by her band, Primavera en Salonico, which she formed in 1993, Yannatou continues to demonstrate her mastery of Mediterranean music. Her repertoire includes songs from Sardinia, Corsica, Israel, Turkey, Italy, Cyprus, Albania, Spain, Africa, South American, the Caribbean, and her homeland in Greece. RootsWorld described her as "a singer of astonishing range, superb vocal control, and consummate musical scholarship," while www.cityofwomen-a.si claimed that "like a tightrope walker, she elegantly dances on the rope connecting the modal music of the Orient with equivalent music from the West, medieval song and Mediterranean polyphonies." Having established her reputation in classical music, Yannatou began to expand her horizons in 1993 when she formed Primavera en Salonico. The group – which focuses on a mix of European classical, Byzantine, traditional Greek, and Near Eastern music – creates a world music sound with a combination of Western instruments (guitar, violin and double bass) and Eastern instruments, including toumbeleki, bendir, tambourine, daoul, kanonaki, nay, and tamboura. A year after coming together, Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico recorded an album of Sephardic folk songs of the Balkan region. The album was followed by two additional group recordings – Songs From the Mediterranean and Virgin Maries of the World. Yannatou has also recorded as a soloist, releasing Spring in Salonica in 1994, Traditional Lullabies in 1998, and Rosa Das Rosas in 2000. ~ Having built her reputation as a singer of Baroque, renaissance, and early music, Savina Yannatou has increasingly veered toward avant-garde jazz and improvisational music. Accompanied by her band, Primavera en Salonico, which she formed in 1993, Yannatou continues to demonstrate her mastery of Mediterranean music. Her repertoire includes songs from Sardinia, Corsica, Israel, Turkey, Italy, Cyprus, Albania, Spain, Africa, South American, the Caribbean, and her homeland in Greece. RootsWorld described her as "a singer of astonishing range, superb vocal control, and consummate musical scholarship," while www.cityofwomen-a.si claimed that "like a tightrope walker, she elegantly dances on the rope connecting the modal music of the Orient with equivalent music from the West, medieval song and Mediterranean polyphonies." Having established her reputation in classical music, Yannatou began to expand her horizons in 1993 when she formed Primavera en Salonico. The group – which focuses on a mix of European classical, Byzantine, traditional Greek, and Near Eastern music – creates a world music sound with a combination of Western instruments (guitar, violin and double bass) and Eastern instruments, including toumbeleki, bendir, tambourine, daoul, kanonaki, nay, and tamboura. A year after coming together, Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico recorded an album of Sephardic folk songs of the Balkan region. The album was followed by two additional group recordings – Songs From the Mediterranean and Virgin Maries of the World. Yannatou has also recorded as a soloist, releasing Spring in Salonica in 1994, Traditional Lullabies in 1998, and Rosa Das Rosas in 2000. ~ Craig Harris
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