The Colors of Invention, featuring Myriam Lafar, accordion, Ludovit Kovac, cymbalum, and Philippe Noharet, double bass were first brought together for a recording project, the brainchild of French violinist, Gilles Apap in September of 2000. 

This project, which also includes other instruments resulted in the release of a cd on the Apapaziz label entitled “No Piano On That One.”  However, the collaborative ensemble and the artistic brilliance of these four musicians made it clear that this was the launching pad for a brand new band.

The Colors of Invention’s unique blend of instruments lends itself to a variety of musical genres.  While the music they perform is rooted mainly in the classical tradition, the folklorique qualities of both the accordion and the cymbalum and the tremendous flexibility of Apap and Noharet as string players, lead them to an extensive range of styles, including American blue grass and old-timey music, traditional Rumanian tunes, as well as Irish fiddle tunes.

Each of the four players is a standout in their own right.  French accordionist Myriam Lafar has won numerous prizes and awards for her performances and is currently a recording artist on the Philips/Universal label, having just released a recording of French pop tunes.  Originally from Slovakia, Ludovit Kovac is widely sought after as one of the best young cymbalum players in Europe, performing at folk festivals and as soloist with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic.  Philippe Noharet is principal bassist of the Paris Opera Orchestra and can also be heard playing jazz on stage with Michel Legrand, touring with Ute Lemper, or recording in the studios for the film industry as well as for a variety of artists (from Aznavour to Zazie).  The Californian-based Gilles apap is eliciting enthusiastic response everywhere he goes, performing his violin on stages around the world, in recital, with orchestras or as the feature of several television documentaries.

Recent and current engagements for Gilles Apap and The Colors of Invention include La Cigale and the Chatelet in Paris, the Lille Mozart Festival, an the WOMADelaide Festival in Australia.  Their recordings are available online at www.gillesapap.com.

Blanca del Rey was born in Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain. Having six years old and a clear vocation in flamenco dancing, commences winning various prizes and starts with glamorous success at the Gran Teatro De Cordoba.
Her dance is based on flamenco guitar and singing, with a huge capability to transform music into movement.

Soon she enters into the Madrid stages, achieving great successes at CORRAL DE LA MORERIA, the leading Spanish tablao where all top flamenco artists forged their careers. Her marriage with Manuel del Rey and the incipient maternity forced her to a temporal retirement. At this time, she started researching about flamenco roots and evolution. A profound transformation was made which revolutionises her conception on flamenco dance.

As soon as her children grow up, she commences punctual performances at CORRAL DE LA MORERIA, as well as a tour in principal Japanese theatres. Her participation at the Spanish TV programme "La Danza" is the starting point of her return to scenarios.
Together with CIRO, a well-known Spanish choreographer, appear her most outstanding performances, "las alegrνas", "la caρa" and her personal "guajira". But, what really emerges as a never-seen-before masterpiece is the unique "Soleα del Manton".

During two years, she takes part in a national radio programme (Radio Exterior de Espaρa) as the main flamenco researcher, as well as participates in various documentaries about her life and work, recording her choreographies in TV programmes worldwide.

She founded the BALLET FLAMENCO BLANCA DEL REY, a company devoted to developing performances based on a continuous choreography creation and evolution about diverse theatrically-oriented flamenco rhythms. At this moment in time, she obtains numerous grants and excellent critics, hence, becoming one of the best Spanish flamenco representatives throughout the world. 

For more information please visit www.blancadelrey.com

Belén Maya was born in New York, while her parents, Carmen Mora and Mario Maya, were on tour. She began her studies at the age of 18 under the tutelage of Paco Fernández, María Magdalena, Goyo Montero, Rosa Naranjo, Carmen Cortés and Paco Romero. She later studied with Anunciación Rueda "La Tona".
She started her career as guest artist at several well known tablaos : Café de Chinitas, Corral de la Pacheca (Madrid), Tablao de Carmen (Barcelona), Los Gallos, Patio Andaluz (Seville) and El Flamenco (Tokyo).

As first dancer she has worked with the top companies, including Carmen Cortés's Company, Mario Maya´s Company and the Compañía Andaluza de Danza. In 1996, she participated in Carlos Saura's film "Flamenco".
One year later, she founded her own company, La Diosa en Nosotras (The Goddess in Us), with the ambitious project to express the different feminine energies in order to determine the contribution of the flamenca woman today in traditional flamenco.

Marcel Marceau - universally acclaimed as the world's greatest mime, was born in Strasbourg, France. Marceau's interest in the art of mime began at an early age when he would imitate with gestures anything that fired his imagination. Later he discovered such silent screen artists as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and his admiration for these great actors inspired him to pursue the art of silence as a profession.
In 1946, he enrolled as a student in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art in the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris, where he studied with the great master, Etienne Decroux, who had also taught Jean-Louis Barrault. The latter noticed Marceau's exceptional talent, made him a member of his company, and Marceau's career as a mime was firmly established.

In 1947, Marceau created "Bip", the clown who in his striped pullover and battered, deflowered opera hat, has become his alter-ego, even as Chaplin's "Little Tramp" became that star's personality. Bip's misadventures with everything from butterflies to lions, on ships and trains, in dance-halls or restaurants, are limitless.
In 2000, Mr. Marceau brought his full mime company to New York City for presentation of his new mimodrama, The Bowler Hat, previously seen in Paris, London, Tokyo, Taipei, Caracas, Santo Domingo, Valencia (Venezuela) and Munich. Since 1999, when Marceau returned with his classic solo show to New York and San Francisco after 15-year absences for critically-acclaimed sold out runs, his career in America has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance with strong appeal to a third generation demonstrating the timeless appeal of the work and the mastery of this unique artist.

Born in a region situated to the north of Istanbul (between Bulgaria, Greece and the Black Sea), Burhan Öçal, the son of one of those rare old-time teachers of ancient Ottoman and Arabic, has become the musical link between communities in the Balkans and rural Turkey.

A mixture of pure virtuosity and smiling humanity, he became acquainted with percussion instruments at a very early age, thanks to his father, and with the traditional and religious songs of his native culture, thanks to his mother. He does what he likes with his instrument, a simple skin stretched over a metal barrel, which he seems able to transform at will into sounding like a whole collection of drums. He helps us discover the musical genius forged in the crucible of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, the Gypsy and Jewish genius from Thrace and from the Marches and depths of the Ottoman Empire.

Burhan Öçal is not only a virtuoso on traditional Turkish rhythmic instruments like the darbuka, kös, kudüm or bendir, but also on other percussion instruments as well as on the tanbur, oud and saz, which he accompanies with his expressive voice.

He has recorded many CDs such as "Gypsy Rum" and "Sultan’s Secret Door" with his Istanbul Eastern Ensemble, which earned him the Critics’ Prize in Germany. He was also awarded the "Choc" Prize in 1996 for "Ottoman Garden". His main concern is to build bridges between cultures: he often combines classical Turkish music with classical western music, or traditional Turkish music with jazz.

Celina is natural from the island of Boa Vista, Cabo Verde, having followed her family to the island of S. Vicente when she was only six years old.

Ever since worried about the questions of the preservation of the collective memory and, therefore, about the own identity of the people from Cabo Verde, Celina Pereira has accomplished – since her first LP, “Força di Cretcheu”, recorded in Lisbon in 1986 – the adventure of trying to recuperate what of most precious has the soul of her people, through what constitutes the real richness and diversity of its musical culture.

Celina Pereira presents, in a luxury repertoire, themes that are the ground for fixing the memory of the popular traditions, recovering mazurkas, wedding songs and mornas, round songs, lunduns, chorus, rigmaroles and rural tunes, all of them making part of the richer oral traditions, still waiting for a continuous registration for the preservation of the very rich cultural patrimony of the Republic of Cabo Verde. With this ceaseless and systematic work, she has made possible the safeguard of themes which were about to irrecoverable misleading.

As a multifaceted artist, Celina Pereira has also developed a permanent activity in several areas of communication, namely as radio journalist and storyteller, activity she has initiated in high schools and elementary schools in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, since 1990.

Celina Pereira participated to the MUS-E programme in Lisbon (Portugal).