With his flowing white hair, thoughtful deep-set eyes and impressive scholar's brow, string wizard Ross Daly cuts a striking figure. Though long based in Crete, he was born in England to Irish parents, and the widely revered composer speaks with deliberate, professorial precision, a formality leavened by his gentle lilt.

His temperament seems anything but revolutionary, but Daly is at the center of a musical project that is overcoming some of the world's more intractable ethnic divides. Carefully crafting what he calls "contemporary modal music," he draws on traditional and classical traditions in a way that transcends the divide between peoples, particularly Greeks and Turks.

While early 20th century nationalists sought to foster unity in the newly defined countries by promulgating neatly streamlined historical narratives, his musical studies highlight that "there is no 'pure' culture," says Daly, 60. "Everything is the result of the integration of different approaches, ideas and influences coming together and producing something new.

"The rather uncomfortable creation of nation states interrupted that process. The recontinuation of that process is producing some extremely interesting results, particularly in the case of people who are taking the time and effort to really study in-depth the culture of other people."

The arrestingly beautiful results of the kind of in-depth study that Daly embodies is the subject of "Labyrinth: Advertisement Original Compositions and Traditional Music From Greece and Beyond." In his first performances in the Bay Area since 2005, Daly and Greek Lyra master Kelly Thoma perform Friday at Santa Cruz's Holy Cross Church and Saturday at Oakland's First Unitarian Church with Teslim, the remarkable Bay Area duo of fiddler Kaila Flexer and string master Gari Hegedus.

The Bay Area's celebrated all-female Balkan vocal ensemble Kitka is also on the bill with a set of Greek folk music, including an ancient pentatonic style that's "one of the oldest singing traditions in the world, very bluesy sounding, very hypnotic," says Kitka's Shira Cion. "We're also doing some Greek diaphonic vocals with Bulgarian dance rhythms, some island and sacred material that our singers have arranged."

The concert concludes with Kitka joining Daly, Thoma and Teslim for a brief concluding set. "I'm pinching myself we get to do this with Ross Daly," says Cion. "If you're a violinist, it's like playing with Isaac Stern or (Jascha) Heifetz."

The program takes its name from Labyrinth Musical Workshop, the school that Daly founded on Crete, which has become an international center for musicians and composers looking to study with masters from Greek, Turkish, Armenian, Indian, Persian, Arabic and other modal traditions.

While Daly was initially drawn to Crete as a place to relax, his third visit to the island, in 1975, ended up turning into a lifelong residency. Settling on the west side of the island, he began studying the Cretan Lyra with Kostas Mountakis, the island's foremost master of the small, pear-shaped upright three-string fiddle.

"As I was studying Lyra on Crete, I became aware of the fact there's also Lyra in Turkey, particularly Istanbul, a very different style," Daly says. "So I was studying Greek and Turkish music at the same time, something that used to get me into some trouble. It wasn't the proper thing to do in Greece at that time, and vice versa."

A beacon to musicians and composers eager to explore Eastern modal traditions, Daly doesn't just play dozens of ancient instruments. His "Labyrinth" performances feature a Cretan Lyra to which he's added almost two dozen sympathetic strings that resonate without being plucked or strummed, giving the instrument a huge sound.

His music can sound ancient and steeped in traditional forms, but his extensive studies and cosmopolitan sensibility are evolutionary rather than preservationist. Daly is dedicated to creating new music, though to ears unfamiliar with the modal systems he's investigating, it's easy to get swept into Near Eastern landscapes.

Flexer, a conservatory musician long devoted to klezmer, recalls the epiphany she experienced first hearing the sound of Daly's Lyra while listening to Kutay Kugay's "Music of the World" show on KPFA. The experience led directly to her connection with Hegedus, who collaborated with Daly and Thoma on 2009's "The Golden Thread."

"I heard this sound I'd never heard before," Flexer recalls. "I thought it might be a fiddle, but I really had no idea. It was one of those moments where you pull the car over and wait for the track announcement. Then I went to Down Home Music and found the one Ross Daly album they had."

'labyrinth: music of Greece and beyond'

When: 8 p.m. Friday Where: Holy Cross Church, 126 High St., Santa Cruz Tickets: $23-$35, http://labyrinthsantacruz.brown papertickets.com Also: 8 p.m. Saturday, First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland, $23-$35, http://labyrinthoakland.brownpapertickets.com