- Matthaios Tsahouridis
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Matthaios Tsahouridis (b. 18 Sep 1978 ) is a Greek musician who plays a range of stringed musical instruments.[1] He was born in Veria, Greece, and at the age of 9 made his mark as a perceptive performer and a sensitive interpreter of music. The Pontic lyra is the instrument which expresses his deep felt devotion and respect for the music he loves and serves. Matthaios is sometimes also referred to as Makos or simply Makoulis.
Matthaios has shown a great interest in the stringed family of musical instruments; he plays instruments such as the violin, laghouto (Greek lute), oud, the Greek bouzouki, guitar, the Persian kamancheh, the Afghan rubab, as well as the Afghan and the Uzbek ghichaks. Having participated in many music concerts and recordings, Matthaios has managed to put forward a personal statement over the musical tradition he embraces and to which he has devoted his life.
Contents
Education
By the year 2001, Matthaios had completed his Bachelor Degree in Music Studies and his Masters in Ethnomusicology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. In 2003 he was awarded a scholarship by the 'Michael Marks Charitable Trust' for his Doctoral research in the field of Performance Practice. From December 2007, Matthaios holds a PhD in Performance Practice from Goldsmiths University of London (titled: 'The Pontic lyra in contemporary Greece'), the first PhD in the U.K. referring to the performance of non-western music cultures.
Achievements
His original temperament and his amazing dexterity in playing the traditional instruments have been widely praised, culminating in his winning the First Prize in a Pan-Hellenic Music Competition, organized by the Greek Ministry of Education at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis) in 1996. In 1997, he was awarded a scholarship by His Eminence Mr Panteleimon and Iera Mitropolis Verias, in order to continue his music studies in London.
In January 2005, Matthaios won the Arts Foundation Fellowship Award 2005 of Britain, as the best UK based instrumentalist, working in a non-western musical tradition. He has also performed the Pontic lyra at WOMAD music festival in Reading (England 2001 and 2005), WOMEX music festival in Rotterdam (Holland 2001), Roskilder Rock festival (Denmark 2002), in Teatro Massimo for UNESCO (Palermo Opera House, Italy 2002), at the Royal Albert Hall (in a Charity concert for the children of Afghanistan, London 2002) and at the Purcell Room in London's Southbank Arts Centre. He performed the Pontic lyra for BBC Radio 3, as well as in many other BBC radio programmes. In August 2004, he performed the main music theme of the BBC for the Olympic Games of Athens with the opera band Amici and Prague Symphony Orchestra. He has also collaborated with Ostad Ardeshir Kamkar on the Persian kamancheh in Tehran (August 2004). In May 2005, he performed at Herodus Atticus Theatre in Acropolis, Athens, accompanied by ERT Contemporary Music Orchestra in the opening ceremony of the Athens Festival and in June 2005 he performed the Oratorio ‘Kosmas o Aitolos' (by Mimis Plessas) in Veria, Greece. In 2006, Matthaios was the co-artistic director of the opening ceremony for the International Byzantine Congress of London with Lady Marina Marks as Chairman and Prince Charles as patron. In March 2007 he performs at the London Porchester Hall (Bayswater) with Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam).
Discography
References
- ^ "Kadırga Problematiği…" (in Turkish). Günebakış. January 27, 2011. http://www.gunebakis.com.tr/makale.php?id=4739&archive_list=3. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
External links
Categories:- 1978 births
- Living people
- Greek musicians
- People from Veria
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