Olcay Bayir
Singer/Songwriter Olcay Bayir appears on the London music scene with her pure and passionate voice which captivates listeners from the start. Carrying enchanting musical treasures of Anatolia; her musical repertoire expands from her own contemporary compositions to her arrangements of heart-warming traditional folk songs spread across the region of the Mediterranean, Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Olcay’s music carries a great deal of cultural richness and she sings numerous languages spoken in this geography…
Olcay Bayir was born in Turkey and grew up in the inspirational cultural richness of Anatolian Geography . She has an exquisite interpretation of the musical traditions she was brought up with which takes the listeners on a mesmerising musical journey in each performance..."
Olcay Bayir was born in Turkey and grew up in the inspirational cultural richness of Anatolian Geography . She has an exquisite interpretation of the musical traditions she was brought up with which takes the listeners on a mesmerising musical journey in each performance..."
Erdogan Bayir
A song writer, vocalist and an instrumentalist Erdogan Bayir was born in Turkey . He started playing Saz when he was 5 years old. His musical talent was a gift to him and it has been his greatest passion since he was a child. He studied Traditional Turkish Folk Music at a conservatoire in Turkey and mastered on a Saz playing technique. Since he moved to UK, he has dedicated himself to composing and has written many remarkable compositions in contemporary folk format. Erdogan has been giving performances focused on his compositions and arrangements in festivals and concerts in London. and in the UK.
Charlie Cawood
Charlie Cawood is a musician and composer from London. Classically trained from the age of 11, he later underwent studies in Indian Classical music, Chinese music, Flamenco and Balinese Gamelan. A former graduate of both the Guitar Institute and the London Centre of Contemporary Music (specializing in Electric guitar), he recently completed a Masters degree in Music Performance at SOAS. He is now a full-time performer, composer and educator, and is involved with a wide variety of musical projects.
Nicki Maher
Nicki was initially trained in the Western classical style on clarinet. After feeling that her personal expression was limited within this music, she started to explore many clarinet playing traditions of the world in order to discover what she considers to be the true articulation of the instrument. Touching on the genres of jazz, klezmer, Macedonian folk, and Bulgarian folk, she has now turned to the makam driven music of Turkey and Greece. Captivated by the voice of the klarnet and klarino in Turkish and Greek music, it has become her ambition to emulate the sound produced on the clarinet within these styles. Nicki studied for a Masters in Middle Eastern music performance at the School of Oriental and African Studies from 2009 – 2010 achieving distinction. She has studied klarnet with Selim Sesler and Serkan Çağrı in Istanbul and klarino with Thomas Xaliyiannis and Xristos Zekios in the region of Epirus, Greece.
Elizabeth Nott
Elizabeth Nott grew up in an artistic musical family back in San Antonio de los Altos, Venezuela, and took piano, recorded and 'cuatro'lesson from a young age. In the middle of her university studies in languages she decided to go to England, her father's country, and 'see what happened'.
After a few years in London, after taking short courses in percussion and composition at Morley college, she decided to take music more seriously and applied to study Ethnomusicology at SOAS. She graduated in 2006, having focused most of her studies in the music and percussion of the Middle East. She has been playing darbuka, riqq, bendir and other percussions since then with variours bands and theatre productions in the UK including: Royal Shakespeare Compnay Marat/Sade (deping for the percussionist), dance/theatre production with Florencia Guerberof 'Mi patria son mis zapatos', Amira Kheir, Khyam Allami, Alejandro toledo and the Magic Tombolinos and many more. Venues include: Royal Shakespeare Company, Blue Elephant theatre, National Theatre Foyer, Royal Festival Hall foyer, Rich mix, Scala London, Cargo, Troubador, Le Quecumbar, SOAS and many more. Elizabeth also teaches and promotes percussion workshops.
George Tsiaousidis
George grew up in Greece. He started taking guitar classes at the age of nine and soon was inspired by classical and rock music. George decided to study for a Bachelor degree on Eastern Mediterranean Traditional Music, where he was influenced by the rhythmic complexity of the Balkans and Middle East, and graduated as a percussionist. In the meantime, he developed a strong passion for fusion and funk bass. Studying the compositional styles from the Pre-Classic to Romantic years lead him to his Masters degree in Composition and Composition for Media at the University of Sussex between 2009 and 2011. George has performed as a guitarist, bassist, percussionist and pianist in various concerts and events around Europe. He has a keen interest in orchestrations, but especially acapella compositions and arrangements. At the moment, he works as a music teacher in primary education.