Sanades: A surprise out of nowhere
It’s a last-minute arrangement. «Come on, it’ll be great.» «But what do they do? Who are they?» «I can’t explain. It’s nine women singing. Let’s go.» The performance has already started and we feel embarrassed at coming in late. We squeeze in behind the front row of seats that are all taken. The nine young women are singing «Vlacha,» a famous song from Epirus of the type that city kids tend to scorn. But whether it was their rendition, the musicality of this unknown group, the absence of instruments, or their passion, we turn to each other at the interval between two songs and exclaim: «It’s great! Why haven’t we heard of them before?» They are the Sanades, who met three summers ago in Crete at a workshop on Bulgarian polyphonic song organized by Ross Daly. That evening we heard Bulgarian, Epirote and Macedonian songs, as well as contemporary Greek songs and gospel. All the songs were sung a cappella with freshness and zest by nine people from different backgrounds who share a passion for singing and a lot of imagination. They will be performing on March 13 and April 2 at Dipylon (2 Kalogirou Samouil & Dipylou, tel 210.322.9771).
