Lighthouse Sessions | Dimitris Mystakidis

Watch the event:

The Lighthouse Sessions, the musical events project that launched at the SNFCC in January 2021 to present a series of unexpected on-stage collaborations, takes its curtain call with yet another handpicked guest, Dimitris Mystakidis.

Each month, a personality from the domestic music scene, framed by a jazz trio and a string quartet, joins the composer and drummer Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis on stage. Using jazz as the starting point and culminating in a freestyle discussion, unrestricted by rules, the Lighthouse Sessions explore the landscape of Greek tradition, rebetika songs and classical music to arrive at an unusual result, open to improvisation and creative experiments. The concert will be held on Sunday, May 16, at 20:30, at the SNFCC Lighthouse.

After Andreas Polyzogopoulos, Savina Yannatou, Giorgis Manolakis and TAKIM, comes Dimitris Mystakidis, to add his own musical brushstoke with the strings of his folk guitar, an instrument that goes hand-in-hand with his name in our day. 

With thirty-five years’ experience as a professional musician under his belt, Mystakidis has worked with most Greek musical artists (composers, musicians, performers) and contributed to more than 150 records. From 1994 to 2004, he was a member of Nikos Papazoglou’s band Loxi Falanga (Oblique Order), playing the guitar and the lute, and his collaboration with Thanasis Papakonstantinou, which began in, continues until the present day. In 2001, he joined the University of Ioannina as a professor in the Department of Music Studies, where he teaches the folk guitar, lute and ensembles; between 2024 and 2016, he also taught in the Postgraduate Department of the University of Macedonia Faculty of Music Science & Art. 

He introduced himself to the wider public as a solo artist in 2007, when he released his debut personal album, 16 Rebetika Tragoudia Me Kithara. The record was instrumental in bringing the folk guitar and its distinctive playing technique back into the mainstream, and contributed to the rise of a whole new class of young guitarists. He has since released the albums Apsilies (2009), Psythirizontas To Rebetiko (2013), Esperanto (2015), Amerika (2017), and Here & There (2019).

With an academic career in the Music Studies Department of the Ionian University, the composer, orchestrator and accomplished drummer Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis is now one of the foremost personalities of the jazz scene. His teachings, creativity and general attitude, guided always by improvisation and rock, traditional and classical music influences, serve as an inspiration for a new generation of musicians. In late 2015, the Alex Drakos Trio, the band he formed with bassist Dinos Manos and pianist Giannis Papadopoulos, released the album Tora, while Ktistakis’ latest solo album Circles  has just been released. 

Contributors:
Dinos Manos – Bass
Giannis Papadopoulos – Piano
Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis – Drums
Dionysis Vervitsiotis – Violin
Kostas Panagiotidis – Violin
Ilias Livieratos – Viola 
Marina Kolovou – Cello

Composition & string orchestration: Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis
Adaptations: Dimitris Mystakidis & Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis
 

Sunday 16/05, 20.30

LIGHTHOUSE

You may watch the concert live on this page, as well as on SNFCC's page on Facebook, on Instagram @SNFCC and it's YouTube channel.

Due to public health measures, there may be changes regarding either the staging of the event, or the maximum number of participants.