Clio Karabelias: "Please open your heart and let the refined, subtle nuances and multiple colors of life touch you"
BPP: Who are you? And who you really are?
Clio Karabelias: I am a woman born in
Paris from a greek family and I play the harp, exploring with my instrument
spaces that have not yet been to much opened for it, means the world of
Improvisation and “world Music”. I try, like many other musicians do, to fill
the space with a kaleidoskope of positive, sublimated emotions. That is what my
instrument I feel is about, it has very clearing properties and I consider
myself as having a mission that I have to fulfill, at my small level. I guess
all harpist do fill the same. I have been raised in Paris from two very loving
greek intellectuals and I always felt at the crosswords of ideas and aesthetics.
I guess this is something that is immediately felt in my music, the search for
roots but also the constant exile and the creativity that exile imposes to
anyone that is away from home.
BPP: If you could say
something important to others who were listening, what would you tell them?
Clio Karabelias: I would say: please
open your heart and let the refined, subtile nuances and multiple colors of life
touch you. This happens indeed while listening to most music, Music is a soul
expander, it refines us, makes us also more complete human beings. I do hope
that people start again, in our days where the mechanical things have a bit
dumbed down everything, to listen to acoustic, non commercial music, music with
more refined and more variety in the emotions and colors.
BPP: What is your true dream, the one that keeps
you up at night and if one day it were to come true you would feel peace and
calmness in your heart?
Clio Karabelias: My true dream would
be that everyone starts growing and transcends its personnal petty egotic
worries by learning more about themselves, about others and about the miracle
of Nature, and by opening more to refined music, refined art, my true dream is
that Art could change this society into a better and loving world!
BPP: How is life
currently for the people in your country and what would you wish for them and
for the planet at large?
Clio Karabelias: In Greece right now
life has become not managable for a big part
of the population. Unemployment has
reached more than 35 per cent and the ecomonic indices are those of a country
under bombs, of a country undergoing huge destructions because of a war. Greece
is the only country to have those indices in a time of peace. I guess, this
means that people are living everyday the tension of country in war (though the massive
destrustion of the whole economical and social network is done by financial
means), and they are even tired of reacting to the every day unjustices of the
Austerity poitics that keep going on. The main public wealth, ssHalth,
education, electrivity and water are about to be privatized, so that only those
who have kept a certain prosperity will now benefit from it. All this is
getting Greece to the state of a developing country (with no offense to those)
and not a European country where proper Education, Life, Health, basic
amenities are due to every citizen. The only solace here is that nowadays Art
in all its forms in Greece blossoms, as we get back to the essentials.
BPP: If you had a
chance to be a child again would you choose the same life?
Clio Karabelias: I guess I have been blessed with a wonderful family, I grew up in a house where Books and Paintings where fighting for a place in the walls, so I guess I had an ideal, rich, artistic and intellectual education from a very loving family that always supported me in my most crazy dreams. So I am grateful.
BPP: What was the exact moment that you realized
what you wanted to do with your life?
How did you feel at this very moment?
Clio Karabelias:I realized it when I
saw the Art Ensemble of Chigago performing in Paris about more than a decade
ago. The intensity of their act was a conversion to me (I was twenty). Though I
was already pretty advanced in music, I was not completely sure It would be my
profession. When I saw them, I just had a revelation: I wished to give and
share as they do….I still consider this deep feeling of commmunion and
spiritual transformation I felt that evening as one of my main artistic
aspiration.
BPP: Would you like
to tell us something we didn’t ask until now?
Clio Karabelias: Beiing a woman, this
world provides you a lot of tough times, especially in a man’s world like the
musical one. I hope more and more women can shower the world with their
feminity- briging to light the “feminine values”, compassion, understanding and
forgiveness.
Last but not least, I
appreciate very much the platform of Beautiful people as I believe in any
people’s initiative to propose different and original ideas and work. There is an indian concept called “leela” that
means the world as a game, that God has created to enjoy the multiplicity and
the complexity of possibilities of colors. We have to work all together to expand
our understanding and joy of being in this world.
If you want to learn more about Clio Carabelias, please visit:
Biography:
Born in Paris from a Greek family, in a cosmopolitan atmosphere, Clio inherited much love for the arts, for ancient cultures, and oriental melodies. As she was in her final course of classical harp studies in Paris, she discovered improvisation, thanks to her teacher Helene Breschand. The revolution which started then took her away from the pure classical music, and oriented her not only towards contemporary improvised music and free jazz, but also towards traditional music.
Her search for her own style and improvisation on the Harp drove her towards music of oral tradition like the Turkish music that she learned with her Master Talip Ozkan. and continued to enrich her musical abilities especially on improvisation by meeting several interesting musicians of the world music scene
Clio’s musical journey took a remarkable turn when she started interacting with the Indian musicians. The richness of improvisation, the jumping rhythms fascinated her and touched her like the Greek or Turkish would do…
Clio spent few years in the Indian continent, where she developed slowly her understanding of the Indian melodic and rhythmic systems. She started learning dhrupad from Sri. Uday Bhawalkar to amalgamate the teachings with her compositional ideas on her instrument.
Clio has played for theater on the Harp (theatre du Peuple of Bussang ; festival de l’Imaginaire in Paris). Clio has played for several world music festivals in France, and Europe, alone or with the world music band Srishtii that she cerated w along with sitar player Hindol Deb. She played for jazz man Magic Malik in La Cigale in Paris, and recently, with the Raghu Dixit Project. In India, she has performed at the Fireflies Festival and French Cultural Centers in India, She has also toured with her world music band Srishtii for the Suvarna Karnataka and recorded for the indian composer AR Rahman in Madras.
Clio develops a style and a sound in her compositions and improvisations which sublimates the classical Harp. In the confluence of free jazz, classical contemporary music and oriental music, she incorporate all her influences a unique melodicorythmical language. She plays on electric Celtic harp (Camac) and Pedal Harp (Budin Pandora) but always prefers to play on her concert Harp Lyon and Healy, wich is unfortunatly difficult to transport around the world.
Clio plays solo or is ideally accompanied by a percussion or a drumset, and she loves experiment with any traditional instrument.
Performances:
- 4-5 November 2012: IMEX Music Festival, in the Bali, Indonesia.
- October 2012: MTV unplugged,India, with Indus Creed.
- October 2012: Chivas Regal tasting, India.
- 3 August 2012: Solo concert for the Museum of Rethimnon. Creete, Greece.
- 14 July 2012: Paros Park Festival, Duo with Georges Anagnostopoulos (percussions).
- 20 March 2012: Hyatt Regency Pune.
- 18th February: Jodhpur, Make-my-Trip promotional Event.
- 31th December 2011: Marriot Hotel, Bombay, India
- November 2011: Opening for the Teacher's Wiskey Tour, Delhi.
- November 2011: Bacardi NH7 weekend festival, with Taal.Inc
- 30th October 2011: with Ravi Yier, Vravi, at the Blue Frog, Bombay, India.
- 15 July 2011: Solo concert, Archeological Museum of Ygoumenitsa, Greece
- 25th June 2011: Toyota annual conference, Bombay.
- May 2011: Solo in concert in Nagpur at Rabindra Natya graha
- March 2011: Solo performance at Mandapa - Paris, France
- February 2011: Musee Guimet with Srishtii and Prabhu Edouard - Paris, France
- January 2011: Fine Art Center at Chembur with Sivamani - Mumbai, India
- December 2010: Audi Art Show - Mumbai, India
- December 2010: National Golf Tournament Closing Ceremony - Pune, India
- December 2010: Blue Frog with Talvin Singh - Mumbai, India
- September 2010: National Galery of Modern Art - Mumbai, India
- September 2010: India International Center - New Delhi, India
- May 2010: ITC Hotel - Mumbai, India
- January - March 2010: Tour in Grecce and France with Srishtii (compositions and improvisations on the sitar and harp)
- December 2009: Private concerts, India
- September 2009: With Raghu Dixit Project - Bangalore, India
- May 2009: Les Recollets with Srishtii
- May 2009: La Bellevilloise, with Srishtii Paris
- March 2009: Alliance francaise of Pune in SRISHTII
- Suvarna Karnataka Concert Tour (Karnataka – 2008)
- September 2008: Sahitya Natak Akademi (Alain Danielou festival at IIC, India International Centre) - Delhi, India
- March 2008: Concert at the French Embassy in New Delhi for Le printemps des poetes
- May 2007: In studio with A.R. Rahman (music for several movies) - Chennai, India
- May 2007: Solo concert at the Bangalore school of music - Bangalore, India
- April 2007 : Festival Fireflies - Bangalore, India
- April 2007: Duo with Ustad Hamid Khan (sitar, harp, tabla), Alliance française of Bangalore - Bangalore, India
- 2005 - 2006: Several concerts in Paris. Creations for harp, voice, oud, and saz, with the lute player Miriam Azizi
- September 2004: Improvisation. Performance with the computer installation Detours (program with 12 tracks) within artistic events of Olympics 2004 - Athens, Greece
- Sept 2004: Show of the jazz flute player Magic Malik, Echec et Jazz, at l'Elysée Montmartre, Paris
- 2003 - 2004: Sings and plays in several cafes and venues in Paris within traditional Turkish band wit Benjamin and Malte Stuck
- May 2003: Improvisation and creations at the Harp, Dojo de Paris, inspired by South Indian compositions
- May 2002: Music for La Bacchante, Festival de l'Imaginaire, Maison des Cultures du Monde, Paris
- Summer 2002: Music improvisations and creations for the Play directed by Jean Claude Berutti, Pupil wants to become Tutor (Peter Handke), théâtre du Peuple - Bussang, France
- 1994 - 2003: Music along with classical ensembles and orchestras.
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