Greek Music Education Program: Lefteris Kordis with Lefteris Bournias

Please note the new date of this session (originally scheduled for April 14th.) Berklee College of Music Professor Lefteris Kordis will present a lecture and workshop on musical concepts from Greek antiquity and the ways these concepts survived through the centuries, in Byzantine, Eastern Mediterranean folk, rebetika, and modern Greek music, including Kordis’s own original music. Clarinetist Lefteris Bournias will perform musical examples.

The pre-registration fee is $25 per individual session, or $30 at the door (payable by cash/check.) You can also pre-register for the entire series at a discounted rate of $125. Pay securely via Paypal using the button above (at checkout, you will have the option of selecting the total number of sessions you wish to register for.)

Pianist, Composer, and Inner Circle Music recording artist Lefteris Kordis has established himself as a unique voice in the Mediterranean Jazz idiom. He grew up in a multi-cultural environment in Elefsis, an ancient town near Athens, Greece. Since the age of four, he has studied, performed, and composed based on a wide spectrum of genres including Greek folk, Byzantine chant, Western classical, jazz, and modernist/avant-garde.

He graduated from the Music Gymnasium and Lyceum of Pallini, the National Conservatory of Athens, the Ionian University, and pursued a doctorate and a master’s at the New England Conservatory on Fulbright and Onassis grants. He has performed in major international venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Panama Jazz Festival, Corfu Jazz World, and the Toronto Jazz Festival with music legends Mikis Theodorakis, Glykeria, Vasilis Saleas, Steve Lacy, Sheila Jordan, Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, and Robin Eubanks, among others.

Lefteris is currently associate professor at Berklee College of Music and the Global Jazz Institute teaching alongside John Patitucci, Danilo Pérez, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Joe Lovano. He is the co-director – along with Dimos Dimitriadis, head of the jazz program at the Ionian University – of the “Aqua Jazz,” an educational and performance program that builds bridges between folk musicians and jazz improvisers in Greece and the East Mediterranean region. Lefteris has recorded six albums as a leader and has recorded in numerous others as a sideman.

The goal of the Boston Lykeion Ellinidon and Maliotis Cultural Center Greek Music Education Program is to increase knowledge of and appreciation for traditional Greek music. Our unique approach offers both educational presentations about the music, and the opportunity to participate in it by playing and singing.

The spring 2019 course will be composed of six sessions, 2.5 hours per session. Each session will have a different instructor, and focus on a particular aspect of Greek music, including musical history, influences, instrumentation, styling, significant figures and musicians, and contemporary manifestations.

The class will be participatory according to each leader’s discretion. The instructor may choose to invite participation throughout the session, or in a focused, compact period. Participants may elect to engage by listening, participating in the rhythmic element, singing, and/or playing their instrument.

Each session will occur if there is a minimum of 8 pre-registrants for that session. In the event that any individual session does not meet a minimum of 8 participants, registrants registered for the whole series will be refunded the proportion for the cancelled session. If a student wishes to withdraw, a full refund will be provided provided that they inform BLE, in writing, no later than one week before the class begins.