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Nikos Kypourgos
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Nikos Kypourgos will conduct a quartet as well as singers and a choir to play a selection of his work. String quartet: Despina Vaigousis (cello), Spyros Vaigousis (piano), Lefteris Vaigousis (violin) and Nikos Lappas (wind instruments). Singers: Elita Kounadi, Alexia Katsanevaki and Akis Pitsanis. Guest choir scheme: Cantilena, conducted by Giorgos Kaloutsis.

Nikos Kypourgos was born in Athens in 1952. He studied Music theory and modern techniques with Yiannis A. Papaioannou and at the same time Law and Political Sciences at the University of Athens. He continued his musical studies in Paris (1979-83) with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation at the Conservatoire, as well as alongside Max Deutsch, Ianni Xenaki, etc. He also studied Ethnomusicology and Music Pedagogy.

Kypourgos har created music for musical theater (opera, musical comedy, musicals), he has written works for orchestra, choir, dance performances and for songs.

   

At the same time, he has written music for more than 100 theater performances (from ancient drama to the modern repertoire) as well as for 65 films, Greek and foreign. 

   

Kypourgos has been honored with many awards in Greece as well as abroad.

   

For his complete work and discography: www.nikoskypourgos.com

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Elita Kounadi graduated from the Dramatic School of the Greek Theater in 1998. From an early age she attended classical and modern dance classes and was involved in music, studying theory, piano, accordion, classical and modern singing.  As an actor, she has collaborated with Greek and foreign directors' productions. In recent years she has been working mainly with the National Theatre for the original concept and research of the MATAROA play La mémoire trouée, directed by HélèneCinque/Ariane Mnouchkine, presented at the Théâtre du Soleil. Kounadi was selected as a 2014 fellow of the Institut Français, the Cité Internationale des arts and the Ville de Paris. As a singer, she has collaborated with Stamatis Kraunakis, Nikos Kypourgos, Stavros Xarchakos, Vassilis Papakonstantinou, among others. As a member of the Kounadis Archive and the Kounadis Archive Virtual Museum, she consistently participates in the research and documentation of his collections. She studies History at the Université Paris Nanterre.

Cantilena of Chania was founded by the private initiative of its director Giorgos Kaloutsis in 1997 by members of the Choir of the Conservatory Yiannis Bouchalakis, forming a twenty-member "Vocal Ensemble" specializing in unaccompanied (a cappella) Renaissance music. Along the way, they had many successes with appearances in Crete, Athens and elsewhere. Transformed, they continue to present themselves in the musical life of Chania. Cantilena of Chania is held under the auspices of the Greek High School of Chania.

Giorgos Kaloutsis studied in London (Royal Academy) and was for a number of years Director of Music at the New College Choir School – Oxford. In Crete, he directed the Venizelio Conservatory of Chania, the Music School of Agios Nikolaos and the Heraklion Conservatory. He founded the Children's/Adolescent Choir of the Municipality of Chania, as well as the two Vocal Ensembles "Thalitas" in Heraklion and "Cantilena Chania" specializing in 'a cappella' renaissance music. In Chania, he established the production of 'musicals' with the children of the Municipality choir, an institution that is still very successful with its current director, Nikos Perakis. He recently published his book "The Songs I Worked On", an anthology of his own arrangements and translations of songs.

​Alexia Katsanevaki began her journey participating as a singer in traditional and rebetika music groups, while in recent years she has been studying the idioms of blues, soul and jazz. She has attended classes in Byzantine music, civil lute and traditional percussion, while since 2022 she belongs to the coordinating team of the program ΄΄The Art of Rhythm in Education, Music in the Community΄΄ of the Region of Crete. From 2021 she is one of the main performers of the music ensemble Vamos Orchestra.​

Akis Pitsanis studied at the school of instrument making in Kastoria and is a graduate of the Department of Music Studies of the University of Ioannina with a specialization in electric guitar. He is a versatile musician, composer and singer of urban folk songs. In his musical career, he has created personal records as well as collaborations with renowned artists in Greece and abroad. Since 2018, he has been teaching at Music Schools and conservatories while at the same time conducting choirs and musical ensembles based in Chania.

Despina Vaigousi finished her studies in Psychology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In the course of her music education, she was a student of many teachers such as Ioannis Lambos on the violin, Isidoros Sideris and Sofia Euklidou on the cello. She also participated in the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the municipality of Rethymno, in the Orchestra of the Municipal Conservatory of Thessaloniki and in the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Crete. She is one of the founding members of the Erodias Music Club and the homonymous youth orchestra. Vaigousi teaches cello and is an animator of Music-Kinetic Education classes and participates in concerts in various parts of Greece with orchestras such as Erodia, Vamos Orchestra and the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Crete.

Lefteris Vaigousis began his musical studies in violin and Byzantine music in Chania. He is a member of the youth symphony orchestra of the Municipality of Rethymno, holder of a violin diploma with teacher Ioannis Lambos, a Byzantine Music diploma and a graduate of the Department of History and Archeology of the University of Crete. Since 2013 he has been working as a violin teacher in Chania, Rethymno and Heraklion and is the president of the Chania Erodias music club, under whose auspices there is a youth orchestra, a string quartet and other musical ensembles with which concerts are held at regular intervals in all of Crete.

The love for polyphonic instruments and the acquaintance with his teacher Georgios Kaloutsis led Spyros Vaigousis to study classical piano and harmony. Since he was 13 years he started working professionally in various places as a musician, while at the same time he started organizing and participating in various musical groups. He has been part of Cantilena choir as a bass player. 

Vaigousis has played in various formats, different types of music (rock, jazz, ethnic, classical, contemporary and traditional), in small and large stages while also teaching piano and music harmony.

In 2008, Nikolaos Lappas received his clarinet diploma with professor Kosmas Papadopoulos at the Contemporary Conservatory of Thessaloniki. In 2018, he received his saxophone diploma with teacher Haris Kapetanakis at the Municipal Conservatory of Ampelokipi. He has also studied

Byzantine church music at KOTH, with professor Petros Papaemmanouil, with whom he obtained a degree and diploma in 2013 and 2018 respectively. As the first leader of philharmonic wind orchestras, under the direction of Nikos Chrysochou, he has collaborated with conductors of international renown, such as Douglas Bostock, Denis Laile, Matthew Arau, Thierry Abramovici and Julian Gibbons. At the invitation of the latter, he participated in September 2019 in the recording of a disc by the German wind orchestra Verbandsjugendorchester des Blasmusikverbandes Hochrhein. In January 2018 he collaborated with the internationally renowned trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov. Since 2008 he has been involved in the general education of children as a musician (KDAP, programs for gypsy and refugee children), as well as teaching wind instruments to children studying in conservatories and music schools.

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