Together!
Mikis Theodorakis
& Zülfü Livaneli live

Mikis Theodorakis & Zülfü Livaneli: The legendary icons of Greek and Turkish music singing Together!

Together! was recorded live on the Berlin concert
and was released on the day whitch was planned for the cyprus concert: Friday June the 13th.

Early May 1997 the legendary Icons Mikis Theodorakis (Greece) and Zülfü Livaneli (Turkey) united again to start a series of concerts in Europe with a planned final concert on the green line of Nikosia / Cyprus. In the beginning of 1997 the releations between the two meditarranean countries had become worse.

The first concert in Berlin (House of World Cultures) was totally sold out. It turned to stay the one and only of the planned tour, as Mikis Theodorakis had to cancel all other concerts right after the final standing ovations in Berlin due to serious health problems. The next day he was hospitalized in Athens.

Both the concert and the live album Together! symbolize a very special teamwork of Greek and Turkish people - the whole project needed a lot of sensibility from the first idea until the finished product. While this CD was released there were still violent riots in Cyprus.
Zülfü Livaneli gave a series of protest-concerts in Turkey for 800.000 people. The 18 songs on Together! in Turkish & Greek language are the most important ones sung by their composers Mikis and Zülfü.

The CD unites musicians from Turkey, Greece & Germany. The bouzouki is played by Lakis Karnezis (of Alexis Sorbas theme fame) while Halil Karadouman plays the Kanoun.

This concert is unique in its sense of togetherness, spirit, poetry & music.
Enjoy and be together with us.
  

Musicians & singers on Together!

Mikis Theodorakis - Vocals
Zülfü Livaneli - Vocals

Larkis Karnezias - bouzouki
Griegoris Tsistoudis - bouzouki
Jannis Zotos - guitar
Henning Schmied - piano
Thanassis Zotos - perc., baglama
Wolfgang Musick - double bass

Halil Karaduman - kanoun
Nevzat Akpinar - saz
Ferhat Livaneli - guitar
Dietrich Petzold - violin
Göksun Cavdar - clarinet
Stefan Dohanetz - drums
Members of the Choir of Deutsche Oper Berlin
Produced by Asteris Koutoulas
Recording Director: Wlfgang Loos
  

Mikis Theodorakis about Together!

The concert in Berlin was not the first I have done with Zülfü Livaneli. Late last summer, however, as we decided on this tour, a climate of extreme war willingness and hysteria dominated in our countries, like never before.The raging preachers of hatred, who have been and will be tirelessly supported by the mass media with the baking of the international arm dealers, played a part on both sides. We had to react to that.

I find it absoulutly insane that the years go by and our two people waste billions of dollars buying deadly weapons, on the pretext of murtual deterrence, instead of applying the national wealth to economic & social development. Many Turks and Greeks have to leave their beautiful countries and live elsewhere as imigrant workers because our societyies are forced into economic bloodletting by this armaments mania.

The financial weak countries, Greek and Turkey, help the richer ones to get even richer while reducing themselves to even worse povertry. The rulers in our two countries have learned to be subjects to foreign interests, whitch systematically stir up conflict between our two peoples in order to get an even better grip on us.

It could happen, however, that sometime or other one of this artificially created crisis will turn into a heated confrontation with unforseeable consequnces for our two peoples. We want to speak out against such a development with our concerts, songs and protest and also to make the matter of peace a matter for both our peoples.

Mikis Theodorakis
  

A profile of Omar Zülfü Livaneli

Livaneli, film director, composer & performer was born in 1946. A popular and respected creator, Livaneli has achieved a string of successes as a writer, film director and musician.

In his accomplished music career, Zülfü Livaneli has composed music for over 15 feature films, including award winning movies such as Yol (Golden Palm 1982 at Cannes, soundtrack released by Warner Bros. Records), Suru (The Herd) and Shirin's Wedding.

His music has won him many awards, national and international acclaim and was interpreted by artists such as Joan Baez, Maria del Mar Bonnet, Udo Lindenberg, Maria Farantouri, Haris Alexiu and Kate Westbrook.

To date, Zülfü Livaneli has directed three feature films Iron Earth Copper Sky, Mist and Shahmaran. His movies have been awarded with the Golden Palm in Valencia Film Festival and the Golden Antigone in Valencia Film Festival in 1989. Mist was nominated for the "Best European Film Award". His movies have been shown in cinemas in Turkey, France, Germany, Switzerland, USA and Japan, and have been sold to many network television companies, among them the BBC, WDR, as well as Spanish, Canadian and Japanese TV networks.

Zülfü Livaneli is a Board Member of the Istanbul Culture and Art Foundation, whitch organizes the Istanbul Art Festival, and is a founding Member of the World Arts Forum (Davos).

Besides his artistic activities, Livaneli has been nationaly and internationally active in the promotion of human rights and a culture of peace and mutual understanding between people.

In October 1986, at the invitation of Chingiz Aitmatov, Zülfü Livaneli joined Frederico Major, James Baldwin, Yashar Kemal, Athur Miller, Alvin Toffler, Peter Ustinov and other prominent artists and thinkers of the Issyk-Kul Forum, which he met in Kyrgyzstan and later in Wengen, Granada and Mexico City.

Zülfü Livaneli continues his work and contributions of the world cultural progress and development on the World Arts, along sides such figures as Elia Kazan, Jack Lang, Vanessa Redgrave, Athur Miller, Alvin Toffler, Joan Baez, Wim Wenders, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Together with Mikis Theodorakis he founded the Committee for Turkish - Greek Friendship.
Zülfü Livaneli is also one of the founders of the Turkish - Kurdish Peace Movement, as well as the initiator of the Campaign against Violence, in Turkey, which started in February 1995 and has obtained 400.000 signatures within the first month of its existence.

Zülfü Livaneli is also appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and has been working on the Culture of Peace Program for them.

More Info on Zülfü Livaneli on his official Website (turkish/english)
  

More CDs featuring Mikis Theodorakis on Tropical Music:

CD Various Artists - Happy Birthday, Mikis! feat. Jocelyn B. Smith a.o. (68.813)
CD Mikis Theodorakis & Maria Farantouri - The Birthday Concert (68.974)
CD George Dalaras - Axion Esti / Romiosini (Live-Recording of two outstanding works of Theodorakis with George Dalaras as soloist 

More Info on Mikis Theodorakis