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Explorations of Epirote Folk Music: An American Southerner in Northern Greece
October 9, 2024, at The Rubin Museum of Art
The Hellenic-American Cultural Foundation hosted a curated evening of Epirote music with Christopher C. King. Writer Amanda Petrusich describes Mr. King’s introduction to her of Greek violinist Alexis Zoumbas’ recording in The NY Times as “one of the most devastating bits of music I’ve ever encountered.” Both Αναμνήσεις and The National Herald praised the event.
Nicholas Gage, award-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and author of seven acclaimed books, introduced Mr. King and oversaw the question and answer segment. Mr. King, an honorary Greek citizen, is a writer, curator, and Grammy-winning producer. At the event he read excerpts from his book, Lament from Epirus: An Odyssey into Europe’s Oldest Surviving Folk Music, a Wall Street Journal best book of 2018, where he explored the powerfully cathartic nature of this ancient Greek folk music. His narration was interspersed with interludes of live Epirote music by Aurel Kyrio (Nikolakis), Beth Bahia Cohen, and John Themelis, as well from Mr. King’s rare, archival 78 rpm discs.
Aurel Querjo Kyrio (Nikolakis) was born in Korça, Albania on November 22, 1963. He completed Elementary, Middle, and High School studies in musical profile, focusing on instrumental violin. He completed his higher studies at the Academy of Arts, majoring as a classical conductor. Along with classical music, he expresses his talent in traditional Epirotic music. He has participated in many folk music groups in the UK, USA, Albania and Greece. After the fall of communism in Albania, he spent 20 years in Greece as a violin teacher and as a violinist of Epirote music. He has played at many folklore festivals in Europe, USA, and Canada. Currently he resides in London and has spent the last 12 years as a violinist in various music groups, collaborating with BBC 2, BBC 3, BBC 6, and the London Hellenic Center. He has also collaborated with music producers such as Joe Boyd (producer of Pink Floyd), Jools Holland, and recently, with Christopher King. He remains an active member of various music groups and divides his life between England and Greece.
Beth Bahia Cohen plays traditional Greek music on the violin and various lyras. She has learned from and performed with many violinists and lyra players in Greece: Vangelis Zagoraios of Andros, Achilleas Halkias of Epiros, Yiorgos Bellis of Kythnos, Manolis Manouras and Yiorgos Avissinos of Crete, and more. She has performed with New York dance groups GAFS and Akrites, as well as throughout the U.S. and Canada, in concerts, at Greek dance symposiums (FDF, HDF, etc) and is a founding member of Ziyia, an ensemble performing traditional Greek music from all parts of Greece. She has performed with Petroloukas Halkias, Yiorgos Katsaros, Mario Frangoulis, Christos Zotos, Vasilis Kostas, and more.
She has been the recipient of many grants, including the Radcliffe Bunting Fellowship and NEA/Artists International, Massachusetts Cultural Council Traditional Artist Fellowship in Greek music and MCC’s Apprenticeship program as a mentor. Her repertoire includes violin and bowed instrument traditions of Greece, Turkey, Hungary, the Middle East and more. She is an Assistant Professor of Strings at Berklee College of Music and is on the music faculty at Tufts University.
John Themelis grew up listening to Greek, Armenian, Turkish and Arabic music, and was interested in the sounds of the Balkans and Near East. Over the years, he has learned to perform on countless musical instruments from all parts of the Greek and Near Eastern world. Of all of these instruments, the laouto has been his main focus, learning to recreate the strumming and playing style of the Cyclades, Dodecanese, Crete and the Mainland of Greece. John also has studied the various Greek island playing styles of the violin, tsampouna, Dodecanese lyra and santouri. He has performed throughout the USA, Canada and Greece with the likes of Nikos Oikonomidis, Michalis Gambierakis, Nikos Hatzopoulos, Nasia Konitopoulou, Giakoumis and Giorgos Gavras, Nikos Sofos, Mavrothis Kontanis and the Maeandros ensemble, Demetri Tashie, Beth Bahia Cohen, Lefteris Bournias, Nikos Fakaros, Alexandros Papadakis, Nikos Kouroupakis (of the renowned Trifono), Chronis Aidonidis, The Verdis family of Epirot musicians, Christos Govetas and many others. He has collaborated with the members of the internationally known Greek folk group, Endasi since 2003 and as of 2018, has formed the Anemos Music Project with fellow laouto extraordinaire, Vasilis Vassiliadis, performing contemporary and traditional Greek island music. John lives in Garden City, NY with his wife Maria and their children Theodora, Theologos and Nikolaos.
The evening concluded with the musicians playing a set of Epirote music, which continued at the reception, and a book signing with Mr. King.
A video of the event is available, free of charge, on our website.
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