Vanessa Kourtesi:The art of Rebetiko singers before & after WW2

In this workshop we will dive into the world of rebetiko music, focusing on the singers. Rebetiko music seems to turn around an important threshold that divides the aesthetics and essence of it into two important columns: The pre-war and the after-war. In the workshop, we will discover singers from both eras and we will study their technique, ornamentation, aesthetics, examining also the orchestration and arrangement of the songs and how this influences their
singing. We will focus on two songs, one of each era: Beginning from a common ground that the two songs have, we will dive into the details, observe and listen to the differences and the evolution of rebetiko singing.

The workshop applies to vocalists and to everyone who likes rebetiko or
modal music and would like to deepen their knowledge about it.

The workshop will be taught by the vocalist Vanessa Kourtesi.
Vanessa Kourtesi is a vocalist born in Athens, Greece. She is based in Rotterdam since 2017.
In 2021 she graduated from the world Music Department of Codarts, University of the
Arts(Rotterdam), specialized in singing and with Education as a side subject and she is about to start her masters in Vocal Pedagogy. Her Bachelor thesis was
about vocal improvisation in makam music and had the opportunity to analyse vocal
improvisations of the style and also the singing of Marika Frantzeskopoulou. Vanessa is an active performer since 2010 and she has performed with various rebetiko ensembles in
Αthens and participated in many projects(The Circle Orchestra, Merem,Serenade Ensemble,November quintet, kiriakatikes afigiseis and others). Since 2017 that she is based in Rotterdam, she has been performing, teaching and touring in Greece, the Netherlands,Belgium and France. Vanessa loves to sing in different languages and so she sings in Greek, Turkish, Portuguese, English and she is currently preparing her first album with her own compositions that will be released in 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBWZ-uLUHXQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAnhH2dogu4
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW0oQcOP_1mXrUMWmqZFdvw

Art Base, Saturday 29/1/22 11-13.30h, 30E,
29 rue des Sables Zandstraat, 1000 Bruxelles. For reservations & more info to www.art-base.be