Christos Barbas

Christos Barbas is a versatile Greek multi-instrumentalist and composer known for his creative and wide-ranging musical approach. He began his musical studies early, learning recorder, piano, baroque music, harmony, and counterpoint, and completed his formal Western music training in 2002. He later studied musicology and ethnomusicology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and SOAS in London. Since 2003 he has focused on the ney, as well as Sufi and classical Ottoman music, studying with leading performers in Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey, while also exploring instruments such as the kaval, bansuri, Irish whistles, and various bagpipes across traditions from folk music to jazz and free improvisation.

Barbas is especially interested in a creative engagement with older sacred and popular musical traditions, valuing their timelessness and expressive possibilities over strict notions of authenticity. He communicates this through his performances, his compositions, interdisciplinary collaborations, and his work as a teacher.

He has written music for a wide range of settings, including dance, theatre, film, and modal ensembles, and has released nine albums of original work with groups such as Yeden, Neda, Magnanimus Trio, and collaborations with Murat Aydemir, Peppe Frana, and Efrén López. Alongside his own projects, he has worked with prominent artists including Ross Daly, Zohar Fresco, L’Ham de Foc, Evgenios Voulgaris, Maria Farantouri, Anja Lechner, and Björn Meyer, performing internationally and recording widely in the field of contemporary modal music for labels such as An Music, Felmay, and ECM.

Barbas has taught ney, kaval, improvisation, and modal music composition at institutions in Arta and Thessaloniki, as well as at the Labyrinth Musical Workshop in Crete and cultural centers throughout Europe. He is also the artistic director of Labyrinth Catalunya.