FRIENDS OF MUSIC SOCIETY – EVENTS AT MEGARON
You are invited to put on your best carnival mask and come to the Athens Concert Hall!
Café Aman Istanbul musicians and singers Stelios Berberis and Pelin Suer return to Athens, accompanied by the Horokos dance group, for a show featuring songs and dances of the famous Baklahorani, the Greek carnival of Istanbul.
The pre-Lent period was celebrated by the Greek community of Istanbul with colourful and bawdy masked parades that ended up in the famous district of Tataula, where there was music, food, wine, and endless dancing; the carnival culminated in a frenzy of merrymaking, the Baklahorani of Shrove Monday. The Constantinople housewives prepared treats, while balls and receptions were organized in bourgeois homes, hotels, and clubs, especially in the aristocratic Pera district. The Tataula Baklahorani reached its peak of popularity during the first decade of the 20th century; the custom faded after the great fire of 1928, which changed irrevocably the topography and social character of Tataula, while in 1941 the local police banned the parade on the pretext of public security. It was revived in 2010, when Istanbul was European Capital of Culture.
Café Aman Istanbul
Stelios Berberis, Pelin Suer singers
Manolis Kottoros violin
Nikos Mermingas lavta [Politiko laouto], bouzouki, lute
Aydin Çiracioğlu accordion
Michalis Atsalis guitar
Şakir Ozan Uygan, Oray Yay percussion
İsmail Karaşin kanun
Giorgos Ventouris double bass
Panos Ioannidis laterna [Greek barrel piano]
And clarinet virtuoso Serkan Çağri
With the participation of the Horokos dance group
Under the auspices of the Ecumenical Federation of Constantinopolitans