Lighthouse Sessions | Andreas Polyzogopoulos - Εικόνα

Watch the event:

 

A new series of music events begins in 2021 at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. Each month, the composer and drummer Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis will invite handpicked guests from the domestic scene to join him on a journey originating in jazz and culminating in a freestyle discussion, unrestricted by rules. 

The Lighthouse Sessions series begins on January 24, with the objective of demonstrating the power of the language of music through five unusual portraits, connecting Greek tradition and rebetika songs with jazz and classical music in an unexpected and, as a result, unique fusion, open to improvisation and creative experiments. 

Ktistakis talks with his guests about their life and musical pursuits, while inviting them to engage in a musical dialogue, accompanied by a jazz trio and a string quartet. 

The first guest, on 24/1, will be the acclaimed jazz trumpeter Andreas Polyzogopoulos, followed by Savina Yannatou, the lutist Giorgis Manolakis, creator of Couleur Locale, and the musical band Takim.  

The trumpeter and composer Andreas Polyzogopoulos grew up in Samiko, a small village in Ileia. He began his journey in music playing the guitar, until, at age 18, he discovered the trumpet. He studied jazz trumpet at the Amsterdam Conservatorium (Bachelor of Arts) and the Royal Academy of Brussels (Master of Arts), where he also won the Toots Thielemans competition. At the same time, he took lessons with Markus Stockhausen, and attended seminars with Paolo Fresu in Sardinia. 

He began composing from early on in his career. In 2008, he recorded his first album, entitled "Perfumed Dreams", with the Poly Quarter, and won first prize in the Motives For Jazz competition in Belgium. In 2010, he was a member of the European Youth Jazz Orchestra, and toured Europe. He has performed in several major festivals and clubs, such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Odessa Jazz Festival, the Sanghai World Music Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival, I suoni delle Dolomiti, Jazz a la Vilette, and Banlieues Bleues.

He has released 4 solo albums and taken part in more than 70 recordings to date. He has collaborated with Jaques Morelembaum, Tore Brunborg, Diederik Wissels, Tony Lakatos, Gunter “Baby” Sommer, Mode Plagal, Psarantonis, Giorgis Manolakis, Giorgos Palamiotis, Savina Yannatou, Maria Farantouri, Dulce Pontes, Dimitris Kalantzis, Nikos Sidirokastritis, David Lynch, Haig Yazdjan, Federico Casagrande, Vangelis Katsoulis, Georgos Kontrafouris, Vasilis Rakopoulos, Stavros Lantsias, Petros Klampanis, Takis Barberis, Mode Plagal, Tania Giannouli, Dionysis Savvopoulos, Thanasis Papakonstantinou, etc. 

Andreas Polyzogopoulos stands out for always seeking the new, without fear of risk, whether it comes to the timbre of the trumpet or the projects he creates. A glance at his personal discography will demonstrate that, with "Heart of the Sun", an album dedicated to Pink Floyd, followed by "Anicca" (inspired by a ten-day silent meditation) and his ambient record "One Inch of Love". The European sound of jazz is, in any case, Polyzogopoulos' most beloved and familiar scene, placing as much weight on music and rhythm as on... silence!

The composer, orchestrator and drummer Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis, with an academic background in the Music Studies Department of the Ionian University and musical education, is active in teaching, using his creativity to inspire the new generation that will become the fresh blood of the domestic music scene. 

Five years after his discographic debut, with the album "Tora" and the Alex Dracos Trio, which he co-founded with double bass player Dinos Manos and pianist Giannis Papadopoulos, and in anticipation of his upcoming release, which combines classical, Greek and jazz music, and having composed for a chamber music orchestra, Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis explores global sounds and music anew, starting always from jazz and guided by improvisation and rock, traditional and classical music influences. This makes Ktistakis the perfect host for the new series of innovative performed portraits that the SNFCC is launching on January 24, which will introduce, in five monthly episodes, important names of the versatile Greek musical reality, bringing together the timeless value of tradition with the creative ruminations of today. 
 

Sunday 24/01, 20.30

LIGHTHOUSE

 

You may watch the event live on this page, as well as on SNFCC's Facebook page and YouTube channel.

See also

Sunday 17/01, 17:00

Parabases: Faces of the Hero | Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

More

Wednesday 13/01, 19:00

Faces of the Hero: Readings | Dimitris Katalifos reads William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe

More