SANI FESTIVAL
SANI FESTIVAL
9 July – 20 August 2022
Sani Hill | Kassandra
#SaniFestival #30yearsSaniFestival #SaniHillMagic #OnlyatSani
30 years of Sani Festival celebrating with a top-class concert of the world’s most beloved tenor, Andrea Bocelli, with jazz, pop and rock legends, and leading Greek performers.
New creators and living legends from the international scene, as well as Greek artists with impressive track records, come together in a programme filled with the rhythm, the melody and the pulse of an institution that stays true to its values and features: originality, high aesthetics and quality, and bridging hospitality and culture.
30 year of Sani Festival: A festival that is a story of love for music and the arts, that shaped a path of innovation, quality and high aesthetics. An entrepreneurial initiative that surpassed all expectations to bridge tourism and culture, Sani Festival has forged a route of international recognition and reach, linking this corner of the Greek map to the international music scene. A festival that will host at the peak of its celebration the biggest music event in the country, a celebratory concert of the world’s most beloved tenor, Andrea Bocelli.
A bold idea that was born in 1992, Sani Festival was destined to soar, from the first few melodies of Jazz on the Hill to becoming one of the country’s foremost cultural institutions, right on Sani Hill – where the sea, sky and greenery coexist in harmony with the arts, against a backdrop of a medieval tower. Three decades and 385 concerts, performances, events: music legends and new creators from around the world as well as Greek artists who have left their mark have been ascending the stage of Sani Festival for thirty years.
Honouring its continuous trajectory, adhering to the quality and prestige of the concerts it presents, this year’s anniversary edition of Sani Festival presents a unique in Greece, impressive and refreshingly disruptive programme. Sani Hill will welcome foreign and Greek concerts that are milestones of this summer. Living legends of the jazz, pop and rock scene, for whom the Festival is one of few stops on their tours, and artists returning to Greece after decades are just some of the musical propositions that comprise this year’s feast:
Chucho Valdés, Paquito D’Rivera, Al Di Meola, Jack Savoretti, Bob Geldof. Rock and pop music enter the Festival’s music repertoire for the first time, as a festival that continues to evolve. At the same time, two Greek productions specially designed to celebrate 30 years showcase an institution that innovates and sparks creativity, with great Greek performers in participation: Manolis Mitsias, Christos Thivaios, Eleni Tsaligopoulou, Penny Baltatzi, Dimitris Basis, Rena Morfi, Doros Dimosthenous, Rita Antonopoulou, Kostas Thomaidis, Kalliopi Pouska. This fete of music will conclude with an emblematic concert, where an artist of mythical status will ascend the stage of Sani Festival: Andrea Boccelli, performing within arm’s reach of the limited number of attendees to enjoy the most highly anticipated music event of this summer!
Join us this summer at Sani Hill, the setting where we congregate for the summer festival, to witness melody become experience and music become ritual; to celebrate a festival story of 30 years, Sani Festival.
PROGRAMME
JAZZ ON THE HILL: 10.07 SATURDAY
Avishai Cohen | Big Vicious
Charismatic trumpeter Avishai Cohen will raise the curtain of this year’s Sani Festival and its flagship Jazz on the Hill section. An artist heavily influenced by Miles Davis, Cohen launched his home-grown band, Big Vicious, six years ago, after relocating from the US to his native Israel and rounding up musicians who helped him shape the music from the ground up. The group is an association of old friends, who have jazz music as a common background, but also bring to it their own music statement in a creative fusion that becomes part of the band’s sound. Textures from electronica, ambient and psychedelia music are part of the blend, along with grooves and beats from rock, pop, trip-hop and more. “An instrumental master and a composer of vivid originality” as the Guardian write, Avishai Cohen – who “has rather quietly become one of the most creative trumpet players in jazz”, according to JazzTimes – is about to climb up Sani Hill for a magical concert to mark the festival’s comeback.
JAZZ ON THE HILL: 17.07 SATURDAY
An Evening with Branford Marsalis
Saxophonist, composer and bandleader Branford Marsalis, one of the most influential and revered figures in contemporary music, and a living jazz legend will mark the second Jazz on the Hill concert for 2021. The NEA Jazz Master, Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee defines the Branford Marsalis Quartet as the core of his musical universe. After more than thirty years, this celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a multifaceted range of both original compositions, and jazz and popular classics. Their latest album, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, finds the quartet at a new peak, capturing a kaleidoscope of moods with inspiration in what is their most emotionally wide-ranging and melody-driven collection to date. Encapsulating Branford Marsalis’s vision, this album is sophisticated, adventurous and captures a great band sounding better than ever. As Jazziz Magazine states, “Branford Marsalis’ quartet has been a model of daring, unapologetic artistry for the past three decades”, and Sani Festival is honoured to welcome them in Greece.
GREEK VARIATIONS: 24.07 SATURDAY
Stefanos Korkolis | Sofia Manousaki
Stefanos Korkolis climbs onto the stage at Sani Hill to share the notes to his personal Music Stories, joining forces with an exceptional performer, Sofia Manousaki. They feature songs he has written and performed, songs he wrote for others, songs he has arranged, songs he has adapted and songs he simply loves. It is a musical journey with stops at his most popular melodies as well as gems by prominent Greek musicians, including Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hatzidakis, Stavros Xarchakos, Manos Loizos, Mimis Plessas, Giannis Spanos and Afroditi Manou, as well as popular hits from the international pop, rock, blues, jazz and world music stage. Highlighting eclectic affinities between diverse sounds – such as linking Ray Charles’s “Hit the Road Jack” and Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango” to popular Greek entechno and laiko songs – Stefanos Korkolis’s Music Stories bring together audience and musicians for unexpected twists and turns and inspired improvisation.
SOUNDS OF THE WORLD: 31.07 SATURDAY
Mino Cinelu Band
The world-famous percussionist Mino Cinelu is going to showcase his virtuosity on the stage of Sani Hill on the last Saturday of July. He has cooperated with plenty of talented musicians, like Sting, Miles Daves, Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, Kate Bush, Dizzy Gillespie, Branford Marsalis and many more. In fact, he has probably played the percussion on most of the music you hear while enjoying a drink in a café. He has released four albums under his own name and appeared on countless more records as a composer, co-leader, guest or sideman. In 2020 Mino Cinelu joined forces with Norwegian trumpetist Nils Petter Molvaer, and they released a unique duo recording titled SulaMadiana. The record is a swirl of dub reggae, Nordic and Caribbean rhythms. Mino Cinelu revisits his classics like Confians among other new compositions surrounded by an all-stars lineup composed of Janysett McPherson, Alune Wade and Luca Aquino. Considered as one of the best percussionists in the world, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist is back with a unique and captivating musical journey beyond the roots of jazz.
INTERNATIONAL SOUNDS: 07.08 SATURDAY
Richard Galliano
Richard Galliano, a renowned French accordionist of Italian heritage, brings to Sani Hill the melodies of this lyrical melody of his instrument, blending them with the unique landscape of Sani’s medieval tower. He has famously developed the traditional expression of the accordion, giving it refreshing new life through French jazz. Drawing great inspiration for the French music traditions, especially the musette waltz, Galliano also takes his music to new contemporary places inspired by jazz, blues, tango and Brazilian music, thus blending melody with feeling, emotion and atmosphere. Playing along with his father at the early age of four was the starting point of a long and fruitful career that has taken him all around the world. He has recorded over 50 albums and performed with legends like Chet Baker, Gary Burton, Ron Carter, Astor Piazzolla, Jan Garbarek, Charlie Haden, Wynton Marsalis, and many more. After 30 years, he took a couple of years to mark his stand with his New Jazz Musette album, once and for all emphasizing his everlasting creative and enthusiastic approach to jazz.
INTERNATIONAL SOUNDS: 11.08 WEDNESDAY
Katerina Polemi
Brazilian-Greek Katerina Polemi, who has made a splash with her music, songs and her unique stage presence, has invited her wonderful friends – singers, creators and musicians – to a concert that will sprout Flowers on the Hill of Sani. It is set to be a colourful show; an evening filled with youthful drive, humour and virtuosity, sounds and rhythms from the world. Young artists coming together in freshness, togetherness and companionship: the magical Maria Papageorgiou, who has a rare ability to add strength and emotion in everything she performs; the unique Pavlina Voulgaraki, who creates a dreamlike atmosphere in her songs and in her concerts; the self-luminous Themos Skandamis, with his unexpected, smiling songs; and the young Dimitris Kopsis, with his voice almost tender. Joined by a band of four exceptional musicians, they are promising to take us away to a celebratory outing to many different corners of the planet – spending a little more time on the bright musical roads of Greece as well as Brazil.
GREEK VARIATIONS: 14.08 SATURDAY
Nikos Portokaloglou along with: Ble, Stathis Drogosis
JukeBox – The Songs We Grew up With
One of our country’s most prominent musicians, Nikos Portokaloglou has set up an outstanding programme this year, which features songs from his entire career plus new compositions as well as covers of older songs by leading Greek and international composers, which all power a living jukebox on the stage: a concert filled with nostalgia and optimism, colourful and vibrant, spanning songs from across eras and languages – “songs we grew up with, songs that made us what we are”. Along with Ble, Stathis Drogosis, Agapi Diaggelaki, Vyron Tsourapis, Thanasis Tsakirakis and Ilias Lampropoulos, they are a unique group of friends ready to transport us to almost every facet of the musical spectrum. Can you fit on one playlist “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, Greek ‘70s hit “To Koritsi tou Mai”, “Dancing Queen”, “Odi ston Georgio Karaiskaki”, “Pano ap’ ta Synnefa” from 1988, “Should I Stay or Should I Go”, “Poso Se Thelo”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Min to Peis Pouthena”, George Dalaras’s “Skoni”, “Thalassa Mou Skoteini” and “Let it Be”? The answer will be given on Sani Hill!
CLASSIC WAVES: 21.08 SATURDAY
A journey to music and the visual arts
Sani Meets the Russian Avant-Garde
Classical music meets the visual arts in a retrospective of the Russian Avant-Garde – one of the most influential movements periods of modern art and among the most interesting creative periods in history, which developed in Russia in the first decades of the 20th century. MOMus–Museum of Modern Art’s Kostakis Collection, featuring 1275 works of important artists of the Russian Avant-Garde (Kazimir Malevich, Vasilii Kandinsky, Liubov Popova, Vladimir Tatlin, Olga Rozanova, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Solomon Nikritin, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Gustav Klucis etc.) meets the music of Transcription Ensemble, one of the most ever-evolving music groups in Greece. Under the title Sani Meets the Russian Avant-Garde, this concert will feature a chamber music repertory that is as important as it is rare – made up of Russian Avant-Garde Composers such as Georgy Catoire, Nikolai Roslavets, Arthur-Vincent Lourié, Sergei Prokofiev, Aleksandr Scriabin and Paul Juon – together with synchronised projections that present the Kostakis Collection artwork, as well as the era and the collector. It is a themed performance for two senses that will use music and visuals to transport us to a bygone era.
TICKET PRICES:
CONCERTS JAZZ ON THE HILL & INTERNATIONAL SOUNDS (9, 16, 23, 30 July):
General Entrance: 25€ / Reserved Seat Admission: 40€ / VIP Seat Admission: 70€
CONCERTS GREEK VARIATIONS (6 & 13 August):
General Entrance: 20€ / Reserved Seat Admission: 30€ / VIP Seat Admission: 50€
CONCERT ANDREA BOCELLI (20 August):
from 100€ to 800€ varying according to different audience zones
CONTACT: Τ: 2310-317.327 & 23740-99.400
Book: https://www.viva.gr/tickets/music/sani-festival/avishai-cohen/
