Composer, luthier and multi-instrumentalist Stelios Petrakis was born in 1975 and raised in Sitia, Crete. In 1983 he started lyra lessons in the Music School of Sitia with Yannis Dandolos (1983), Ross Daly (1984) and Helen Drettakis (1985-1993) under the supervision of Kostas Mountakis. He completed his studies in lyra in 1993.
In 1993, he moved to Athens where he continued his studies in lyra under the guidance of Ross Daly and started studying relevant musical traditions (popular music of Anatolia, cosmic music and religious music of Constantinople, Greek traditional music) and instruments (saz, Constantinople and Cretan lute, bulgari, Constantinople lyra). In 1999 and 2000, he attended seminars of saz in the Labyrinth Musical Workshop with the master musician Talip Ozkan.
In the Labyrinth Musical Workshop, which has been rehoused to Houdetsi, Herakleion, he attended, during the summer of 2003, a series of seminars from master musicians with broad knowledge on the instruments and the musical traditions of the East. Stelios Petrakis has collaborated with many important musicians in the world music scene (Ross Daly, Bijan Chemirani, Patrick Vaillant, Dupain, Kristi Stasinopoulou), various Cretan musicians (George Xylouris, Vassilis Stavrakakis, Zacharias Spyridakis, Michalis and Mitsos Stavrakakis, Chainides, etc.) as well as with other Greek musicians and composers (Christos Leondis, Stamatis Spanoudakis, Achilleas Persides, George Makris etc.) in concerts and recordings in Greece and abroad.
For many years he has been one of the basic members of the “Labyrinth” group, under the direction of Ross Daly, with which he has performed in numerous concerts some of which took place at Europe’s most significant venues (Theatre de la ville – Paris, Queen Elizabeth Hall – London, Cemal Resit Rey konser salonu – Istanbul, Herodeon Theatre – Athens, Megaron Mousikis Thessalonikis). In these concerts he found himself collaborating with some of the most exceptional musicians of various traditions (Trio Chemirani, Huun Huur Tu, Mehmet Erenler, Hossein Arman, Khaled Arman, Sokratis Sinopoulos, Rufus Capadoccia, Linsey Pollak, Tunji Beier, Hammid Khabazzi, Georgi Petrov, Pedram Khavar Zamini).
He has released several albums, recorded in his own personal recording studio, for both of which he has received exceptional reviews and awards from the Greek and the international press. He has performed his work in concerts in Greece (Crete, Athens) and in Europe (France, Germany and Spain). He has participated in recordings of other musicians’ works and groups such as in Ross Daly’s, Bijan Chemirani’s, Dupain’s, Christos Leondis’ etc. He is a maker of traditional instruments such as lyra, lauto and saz. He is also a graduate of the Law Department of the Athens Law School.
Read more about Stelios Petrakis: Interview with Stelios Petrakis Quartet
Discography:
Oi dikoi mou filoi, with Giorgis Xylouris, Vassilis Stavrakakis and Bijan Chemirani (Seistron, 2002)
Akri tou dounia (L’empreinte digitale, 2003)
Kismet (Seistron/Buda Musique, 2003)
Orion (Aerakis, 2006/Buda Musique, 2008)
If I greet the mountains/Si je salue les montagnes, with Giorgis Xylouris (Accords Croisés 2009)
Mavra Froudia – Black Eyebrows (Melodiko Karavi/Musiepoca, 2011), with Efrén López and Bijan Chemirani
L’art de la lyra/the Art of Lyra (Ocora Radio France, 2015)
Live in Heraklion Walls (CD + DVD), with Stelios Petrakis Quartet (Buda Musique, 2015)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
