Elena Kakaliagou has developed her own language on the french horn: lyrical and melancholic, angry as a stormy sea or calm as a breeze. Kakaliagou performs acoustic and amplified solo concerts, with or without singing depending on the occasion. The trained horn player offers a new approach to her instrument – melodic, microtonal, silent, singing and always open to spontaneity.
There are musicians who masterfully manage the balancing act between musical agility and playful perfection. Elena Margarita Kakaliagou (GR/AT) is one such musician. The experienced and versatile improviser switches back and forth between styles seemingly effortlessly. Her excellent playing technique and her continuous work on sound make her an internationally sought-after collaborator. Her trademarks are her artistic openness, her very own sense of time and her powerful, warm tone.
Kakaliagou studied horn in Athens (GR) and Graz (AT). She completed her master’s degree at the Finnish Sibelius Academy. In 2010 she chose Berlin as the base for her freelance artistic work. She is a member of the ensembles Zinc & Copper, the Stefan Schultze Large Ensemble and zeitkratzer, co-founder of the duos Nabelóse, the Rank Ensemble and the Trio Para
Elena Kakaliagou’s playing is maximally sound-oriented, her music always organic. It oscillates between tonality and noisy, percussive sounds. The expert in microtonality impresses with her strong stage presence and her inherent ease in playing. Kakaliagou’s particular interest is contemporary music and free improvisation; She has no reservations about other artistic disciplines. Folk, jazz, classical and other musical genres are sources of inspiration for her. She sees boundaries between genres as fluid.