research interests:

post-folk, postmodernism, decolonialism pop +folk music, sociopolitics, social aesthetics, aesthetics and language in text setting in music and education, cosmopolitanism, interculturalism, globalisation, pedagogical improvisation, contemporary, cross genre music, rebetika, post folk, improvisation, auditory culture, ethnographic research, outdoors, climate change, water, drought

other interests:
hiking, climbing 

PhD at University of Cyprus & Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (summa cum laude) Theory and Philosophy in Education / interdisciplinary with ethnomusicology / cultural studies / auditory culture  
MMus at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (1st) composition
BMus (Hons) at Royal Holloway, University of London (2:1) ethnomusicology + composition

Phd title: 

Post-folk Music as a Genre: its conceptualization and multiple significance

selected research residencies: 

Ghannat, Ghannat : The moon above the forelocks  
2024-2025 dec - march

collaborative 
libya, iran, cyprus, nl
as part of soundscapes, kabk + kc (Royal Academy of Art, Netherlands + Royal Comservatoire, The Hague) 
ethnographic + artistic research 
performance at Korzo, Den Haag 31 March 2025 

Konton-ni❤️Ai! 2025 @ Cyprus
2025 march 

Cypriot-Japanese ✨Arest (rest-unrest-forest mix)

For the 2025 incarnation of ‘Konton-ni-Ai!’, we invite Japanese artists and culture professionals to Cyprus for an intensive training school pivoting on situated artistic research and creative collaborations with local Cypriot artists. The theme of the project is Cypriot-Japanese ✨Arest (rest-unrest-forest mix) @Cyprus.

COST - EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 
CYENS 
MADLab - Research Institute of Tepak (Cyprus University of Technology - ΤΕΠΑΚ)
artistic research 

LIQUID HOT MESS 
2024 jan-oct

collaborative
cyprus - limassol
as part of center of performing arts, Mitos
performace at Xydadiko, Limassol, 26 October 2024 
artistic research

skin of water 
2023 dec 

as part of 22degrees halo - ichomagnetics
artistic research 
supported by artists Khaled Khalifa, Nicola Mitropoulou, Orestis Telemachou for performance installation 

Mama don’t send me to America, I will wither and die there 
2023-2024 october 

solo (videographer + photographer - Giorgos Athanasiou + Louiza Vradi) 
researching wedding customs + traditions with the women of Kornos at the community of Kornos, Cyprus 
ethnographic + artistic research conducted in Cypriot Greek dialect, Greek 
archival of customs + traditions  
performance - live composition, 13 October 2023 
as part of XARKIS festival + residency 1-12 October 2023 

other research: 

May you live in interesting times
2021-2022

(Reforming rebetika tsimpita into science fiction fiction and thinking about climate change/ climate relocation) 
artistic research 
RCS - Royal Conservatoire of Scotland 

Sound adaptations of rebetika tsimpita 
2020-2021

artistic research as part of RCS Royal Conservatoire of Scotland 

This project has its roots in my attempt to arrange rebetika songs from the guitar repertoire of “tsimpita” firstly as part of my practice research during my masters. The specific repertoire has an immigration and sociocultural background and was developed in the 1930s in America by Greek immigrants. My approach to this research focuses to the idea of contextualisation of the music elements from Asia Minor to Greece and from Greece to America such as the capture of makam as “dromoi” and an adaptation to equal temperament system instruments such as the bouzouki and the guitar. In America, the bouzouki is capture as the guitar which is tuned in the same way. Another example of adaptability is the use of the taqsim, the free improvisation that is also used in rebetika. Moreover, the adaptability of these folk musicians leads to the technique of African - American blues, where musicians adopted special tunings that they found in America and the guitar playing technique of finger-picking. Hence, they created an original way of performing. 

The first aim of this project was to examine if there is still space for contextualisation and adaptation in tsimpita. Later, after experimenting with text-setting, I wanted to explore and suggest different ways of how these songs can be performed, deconstructed and reconstructed into new contemporary works and interdisciplinary/intercultural contexts. Through this research, I recalled my relation with these songs and my family's relation with rebetika. This EP, could be described as a trip through a collection of personal and urban memories and memories of the sounds from the past, nostalgia, my quest for my musical identity, my current influences of a contemporary context and to my expatriation. Text was set after spending a year experimenting with text-setting due to my bilingual diglossia (Greek and Cypriot dialect). Happy listening!

Sound map: earth.google.com/earth/d/12XMNmlgSvPbhgFtzGsAF0uBzOkd

Women's place in rebetiko culture during the Greek Interwar Period
2021-2022

ethnomusicological - ethnographic research 
as part of Royal Holloway, University of London