Skarazula
Middle Eastern music
Turkish, Kurdish, Greek, Klezmer and Arabic music
This show offers the general public a musical journey to the Middle East.
The group celebrates the diversity of world traditions with music from Turkey and the Arab world, including Europe and Africa. With a multitude of instruments in his bag, Skarazula will take you thousands of kilometers during this magical concert.
This concert benefits from the contribution of a fourth musician, multi-instrumentalist Andrew Wells-Oberegger, which adds a lot of variety both in terms of arrangements and the diversity of instruments used. It therefore provides the necessary complements to this music rich in color.
Discography
Here is the photo gallery of our instruments, made by our luthier member of Skarazula, François Rainville.
Video area...Skarazula presents her composition: The gypsy
For several years, group musicians have cultivated their interest in the music of Europe and the East. Today, while continuing their work to discover and share the treasures of Middle Ages music, they are also letting their passion for the cultures of the Middle East blossom. Skarazula has more than one instrument up his sleeve. These instruments with exotic names, several of which were made by the group's luthier, give great richness to their music. Whether there are three, four or more on stage, whether they perform their own compositions or repertoire tunes, whether they explore today's music or revisit the medieval repertoire, the musicians will bring the same passion and the same talent.
If for years they specialized in the interpretation of ancient music, the musicians of the group now embrace that of oriental music. Although it has always held an important place in the group's repertoire through the compositions of François Rainville or in the interpretation of traditional pieces, oriental music brings greater complexity than medieval music. This is part of the evolution of the group which has enlisted the services of Andrew Wells-Oberegger, an accomplished musician and long-time friend. This four-musician format broadens the possibilities and provides the depth necessary to adequately approach this Turkish, Kurdish, Klezmer or Arabic music.
Band biography
Video area:Skarazula with her baladi dancers
Show with strolling dance...
The Skarazula show is also available with its baladi dancers.When the opportunity lends itself, Skarazula invites Amélie Leduc and Dominique Sénéchal on stage.
They explore the thousand and one faces of oriental dance (baladi) and their fusions (tribal, gypsy, Tahitian, Indian, etc.) in order to create dynamic, elegant and colorful performances where femininity, sensuality and seduction evolve to the rhythm of the music.
Contact us to see the dancers' biographies.
Biography of the artists
François Rainville:
Oud, saz, bowed fiddle, v
Before co-founding Skarazula, François was a member of the medieval group Les Lutins Luthiers for five years; he notably collaborated on the recording of the group’s album Le Festin. A self-taught musician trained in violin making, François makes most of the instruments used by the group's musicians. Before mastering early musical instruments, François first learned the guitar and made a foray into the world of rock and pop music. Gifted as a composer, François is the author of most of Skarazula's original pieces. These pieces reveal his marked interest in Middle Eastern music. He also produced and participated in the sound recording of Skarazula albums in collaboration with Steve Grenier. As a luthier, François built several instruments which were sold as far away as France. François has been an active musician since 1993.
Steve Grenier:
Percussion, psaltery, voice
According to family legend, Steve learned percussion before learning to walk and talk!
He has more than 1500 shows to his credit as a drummer-percussionist. Before co-founding Skarazula, Steve was part of several diverse music groups. He deepened his interest in world and early music by co-producing the three Skarazula albums. An enriching experience both in terms of production and sound recording. A musician with varied interests, Steve is a percussionist-drummer active on the music scene for over 20 years. During this period, he evolved in the company of several renowned musicians.
François Perron
Ney, Kaval, recorders, transverse flute, voices.
With a musical background streaked with ancient music, dotted with contemporary improvisation, splashed with folklore, mixed with classical music, jumped to world music and enhanced with song, François' passion for music happily finds its place within Skarazula . After a bachelor's degree in transverse flute at the University of Montreal, he quietly learned about all kinds of other instruments, but within the group, he uses winds in particular such as the Irish flute, the ney, the kaval and chalemia. The clarinet has just joined the pack. This is to be continued...
Andrew Wells-Oberegger
Oud, saz, bouzouki, guitar, percussion
Born in Montreal in 1978 to parents of English and Austrian origin, Andrew Wells-Oberegger obtained a music diploma from Collège Marie-Victorin in 2000. He specialized first in classical guitar, then in Renaissance lute under the tutelage of Jacques Joubert. Fascinated by ancient instruments and world music, he continued his training self-taught and with several masters. He notably developed his oudist talents with Amine Mraihi (Tunisia) and Ismaïl Fencioglu (Turkey) and perfected his skills in Mediterranean frame drums with François Taillefer and with the tamburello specialist Carlo Rizzo. He also studied singing with Madeleine Jalbert and Francine Poitras. A multi-instrumentalist increasingly recognized on the national scene, among other things thanks to his particular expertise, he is sought after as a performer and composer for soundtracks for films and documentaries (collaboration with Michel Cusson, Gregoire Jeay, Luc Boivin, Normand Roger) and contemporary dance shows (Koreas).