Haralambos garganourakis biography

Cretan music forms a core part of the island’s identity, deeply tied to its history, traditions, and emotions. Mantinades and Ritika reflect themes of love, heroism, and struggle. They are often performed at ceremonies, weddings, and festivals. Instruments like the Lyra, laouto, askomandoura (bagpipe), and thiaboli (flute) create a distinct sound in Cretan music. Modern Cretan music incorporates global genres like rock and jazz.

Popular songs like Erotokritos and Agrimia Ki Agrimakia Mou remain culturally known. Crete hosts music festivals like the Houdetsi, Matala Beach, Rokkas, and Chania Rock Festival. These events showcase traditional Cretan music alongside diverse genres in settings, promoting cultural exchange and creativity. Institutions such as the Labyrinth Musical Workshop, the Museum of Traditional Music Instruments “Thirathen”, and the School of Music and Optoacoustic Technologies preserve and ad

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Beyond the Sea | Pavlos Pavlidis crosses paths with Yannis Markopoulos

Photo: Pinelopi Gerasimou

A contemporary songwriter "meets" one of the greatest Greek composers and forges a music performance that takes us to the future. Following an invitation from the family of Yannis Markopoulos, an unexpected music encounter is unfolding at the Onassis Stegi Main Stage, brimming with memories, strong feelings, but also uncharted soundscapes. Pavlos Pavlidis breathes new life to 16 of the composer’s most iconic songs and places them amid a contemporary sound environment, enriched with electric and synth sounds, loops and polyphonic singing, assuring at the same time not to stray away from their deep essence.

Preserving intact the messages of yesterday’s songs while transferring them sonically from the 1960s to nowadays, Pavlos Pavlidis creates a music performance as if conceived in the future and for the future. Accompanied by great collaborators, bringing forth his own signature

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20th Century Cretan Musicians

Living or dead, contemporary Cretan musicians have broadened the scope and wealth of this island’s considerable melodic tradition

Sometimes haunting and eerie, others exuberant, untamed and lively, Cretan music is like no other. Your first encounter with it might have been through cinema: Adapted from the novel of Nikos Kazantzakis, the famous Zorba the Greek depicts Cretan musicians in action, while its emblematic theme tune is based on Cretan syrtaki. Or you might have experienced -and never forgotten- Crete’s distinct melodies during a local festival or on an organized Greek night.

Performed by talented Cretan musicians, Cretan music remains consciously close to its folk routes. Yet as a staple of everyday life, it evolves in accordance with the spirit of the times.

The fact is that as late as the 1960s most of the island’s traditional music was considered pasto