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Nana Simopoulos is a Greek American composer, vocalist and instrumentalist. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland and in 1970 at the age of 12 years old moved to Greece with her family. She studied folk and classical guitar in Baltimore and in Greece. At the age of 13 she began playing folk and rock in bands in Athens and performed in schools and other venues with Greek musicians. She returned to the U.S. to study Psychology at Duke University while continuing to perform at local venues in Durham, North Carolina. At Duke she took her first lessons in jazz guitar with one of her classmates. After graduating, she spent a summer at Naropa Institute where she studied with Jerry Granelli, Charlie Haden, Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless and Collin Walcott. In 1980 she went to the Musician's Institute in Los Angeles and studied with Pat Martino and Joe Diorio. Among the teachers that gave workshops during her time there were Joe Pass, Allan Holdsworth, Emily Remler and Pat Metheney. In Los Angeles she recorded her first LP Pandora's Blues at Mad Hatter Studios with Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins, Ray Pizzi, Joe Diorio and Tom Garvin. She later returned to New York City where she took courses at Mannes College and Manhattan School of Music. She joined an all women's reggae band called The Rude Girls. While working in an office in the daytime she went to late night jam sessions and the Blue Note and Seventh Avenue South where she heard about the 55 Bar on Christopher Street. She put a trio together and performed there on Friday nights for many years. In 1984 she performed at the First Cultural Capital of Europe Festival with her quartet. In 1987 she traveled to India with the director of the film Kayakalpa that she had scored the music for and was showed at the Bombay Film Festival. There she picked up the sitar for the first time after being invited to attend lessons by concert master Arvind Parikh. In 1988 she performed at the Michigan Woman's Music Festival on sitar and in 1989 at the Montreux Jazz Festival on guitar.

Nana Simopoulos is considered one of the foremost composers of world fusion music. She artfully blends sounds and textures from around the world. The late Indian sarangi master Ustad Sultan Khan accompanied her on her last two releases, After The Moon, 1997 and Daughters Of The Sun, 2001, which was #1 on the NAV New Age and World radio charts. "She has succeeded in blending the products of various cultures…" claims German press. In 1984, Nana’s first album Pandora’s Blues featuring bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins, won critic’s choice from DOWNBEAT Magazine. She later recorded two critically acclaimed releases on Germany’s Enja Records; Wings and Air in 1987 featuring bassist Charlie Haden, trumpeter Don Cherry and saxophonist Jim Pepper, Still Waters in 1989 with bassist Chip Jackson. In 1992 B&W Music released the beautiful Gaia’s Dream.

Her latest album Skins, 2016 includes mystic poetry from Rumi, Hafez, Owl Woman, Mahsati Ganjavi and Kojijuu. Featuring Dave Liebman on Saxophone, Ustad Sultan Khan on sarangi and Royal Hartigan on drums.

Nana's performances include appearances with Oscar winner Tan Dun and choreographer Martha Clarke as a soloist on sitar in Marco Polo with the New York City Opera and the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy. She has also performed widely with her ensemble in venues such as the Montreux Music Festival and appears on their compilation CD Live at the B&W Montreux Music Festival, Vol. II. Her performance at the Warsaw Electronic Festival in October 2007 received remarkably high attendance. She performed at Symphony Space in the Wall-to-Wall Joni Mitchell event with Opera diva Lauren Flanigan and at the Kennedy Center during the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz festival with the Mary Ann McSweeney sextet. Her ensemble, World Music of Nana, performed at the Rubin Museum with Brazilian percussionist Café Da Silva and Merkin Hall with the late Ustad Sultan Khan on sarangi and David Liebman on saxophone. In September she conducted 40 musicians from Tibet, India, Turkey, Africa, Israel and Greece in a 9/11 Memorial Service at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City in an original composition called I Will Remember You http://nana.net/video/sept-11-st-john-the-divine/

In November of 2011 she composed and conducted music for LiquidBody Dance’s performance of Resonant Streams: An Ancient Call as part of the six-month art series on The Value of Water at thre Cathedral of St John the Divine. http://nana.net/dancescores/resonant-streams/

She has written numerous commissions for dance companies such as Dance Theatre of Harlem with former Pilobolus choreographer Peter Pucci, the Joffrey Ballet, The American Dance Festival, Ballet Hispanico, North Carolina Dance Theater and choreographer Caryn Heilman, alumnus of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Her composition “Vessel” was performed by the Westfield Symphony Orchestra in a concert with the Dance Theatre of Harlem in an event called Music In Motion. She has conducted and performed her original music with ensembles at the performances of the Joyce Theatre in New York, the Cathedral of St John the Divine, on Broadway and at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.

Nana has also written scores for films such as the Domain of the Senses; Touch as well as scores for the theatrical productions of Antigone Through Time, presented at the New York City Fringe Festival and Conversations With the Goddesses, produced by Soho Repertory Theatre. She has written scores for two musicals, An Absolute Mystery, which premiered at La Mama, etc., and Matrix Maison, presented at Dixon Place, New York City. She also wrote the music for the off Broadway show Studs Turkel’s American Dreams, Lost and Found, which toured the U.S. and opened at the Lucielle Lortel Theater in New York. During this time the Acting Company received a TONY award for excellence in theater. She is currently performing with her world jazz ensemble and teaches at the School of Visual Arts.

Discography:

Skins 2016

Mediations with the Orishas 2012

Daughters of the Sun 2001

After The Moon 1997

Gaia's Dream 1991

Still Water 1989

Pandora's Blues 1983