Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

SERKAN ÇAĞRI

“My first toy was a clarinet! It’s a really important instrument where I come from. We even have a saying about it: if you can play the clarinet, you’ll never go hungry.” Serkan proved a child prodigy and a thriving international career soon followed.

Serkan Çağrı is not only a talented player of the clarinet, he has also written about the subject. The G clarinet is mainly used in Turkish and Greek music, but Serkan discovered that all Turkish clarinet players played the G clarinet, while the F note formed a clear problem. That’s why he came up with his own design. Çağrı is the first clarinet player in the world to have designed his own clarinet : the Serkan Çağrı Model.

At the 2009 edition of Istanbul Ekspres, Serkan Çağrı performed an amazing show with Yıldız İbrahimova.

LA PANIKA

La Panika consists of a colourful mix of French, Bulgarian and Belgian musicians, among which are several members of legendary band Taraf Borzo. After hundreds of amazing concerts, including a performance at the renowned Sziget festival in Budapest last year, La Panika will finally present their long-awaited debut album, ‘Afan Toufan’. La Panika performs a catchy mix of gipsy music and klezmer in the spirit and tradition of East European village marching bands.