Greek music for solo classical guitar, performed by the composer.

20 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, JAZZ: World Fusion

Details:
BIO INFORMATION
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Kostas Grigoréas was born in Athens. He has studied guitar and theory.
On graduating with a Distinction from the National Conservatory (class of Dimitris Fampas ), he continued his studies in England on a British Council scholarship.
He studied Guitar and Theory at the RNCM under Gordon Crosskey , George Hadjinikos and John Williams and was awarded the Postgraduate Diploma of the University of Manchester.
His activities include solo recitals, song accompaniment, composition and teaching.
He has collaborated with all the leading Greek composers and singers in concerts as well as recordings.
He has repeatedly given recitals and recorded for radio and television in most European countries, America, Africa and the Far East.
His discography includes works for solo guitar, voice and guitar and considerable participation in works of contemporary composers.
As a teacher he has created a school of distinguished guitarists.
He is the webmaster and editor of " TaR - online musical magazine, mostly on the guitar" ( http://www.tar.gr/ )

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COMMENTS and PRESS REVIEWS:
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MANOS HADJIDAKIS (composer):
âKostas Grigoreas is one of the most gifted Greek guitarists of our time: modern in his conception of the guitar and deeply cultivated musically. The way he plays my songs from the Notebook, in Tassos Karakatsanisâ inspired transcription, is fascinating, spontaneous and appealing at the same time. I love to listen to him playing my songs. And this is not something that happens to me often. For this reason I strongly recommend that you listen to him carefully. Along with my music, you will enjoy an exquisite guitar sound.â

EVANGELOS ASSIMAKOPOULOS (guitar soloist):
âKostas Grigoreasâ recordings of works for solo guitar or song accompaniment are a model of quality, sensibility and consummate skill.â

HUBERT KAPPEL (guitar soloist - professor at the Musikhochschule, Köln)
âBoth as a guitarist and a composer, Kostas Grigoreas is one of the most serious figures in the field of classical guitarâ

PERICLES KOUKOS (composer):
"Kostas Grigoreas is an eminent guitar soloist.As a creator of works for the instrument he has served for years, he has developed a personal and direct idiom, which brings out both the virtuosic and the timbral qualities of this instrument..."

NOTIS MAVROUDIS (Guitarist - Composer)
âIn my view, a composer should paint the âportrait of an eraâ through the act of composition. There lies his skill. To compose seasons and memories that have been registered in the subconscious, colours and particular styles recorded through the passing of time. To be capable of enclosing in his music not only his own private experience of the present time but also the collective experience of the past.
It is these very elements that I see in the compositions of Kostas Grigoreas, and for this reason his music transports me to another world through guitar idioms formed out of knowledge and sensibility. Because the guitar needs not so much to run its lonely course as to move (and to interact) through time and, especially, within the requirements of contemporary realismâ¦â

GEORGE LEOTSAKOS (âExpressâ, Athens)
âGrigoreas held us spellbound with the nobility of sound, the plasticity of phrasing and rhythm, and a wealth of fine shades of expressionâ¦â
"A composer possessing not only a sense of the functionality of contrasts and of the timing in their alternation but also a vision so rich that it requires expressive means of a wider range than that of the guitar..."

GEORGE E. PAPADAKIS (âEleftherotypiaâ, Athens; review of "Guitar in the Greek Mode")
âKostas Grigoreas, a top guitarist with a rich career, and a collaborator of important Greek composers, is one of those âfortunateâ musicians who are not âhinderedâ by problems of technique in the full execution of the finest shades of expression and can interpret a work exactly as they feel it.â
âBut the weightiest evidence (as well as a sound argument) for the âGreeknessâ of Grigoreasâ works is the fact that he is a Greek musician who wishes to avoid stereotypical formulas and express himself honestly, like a true creative artistâ¦
â¦Indeed, for exampleâs sake, one might paraphrase the title of his record to âGuitar in an Exceptional Modeââ¦â

COLIN COOPER (âClassical Guitarâ magazine-London)
âA brilliant performance⦠the high accomplishment of this gifted guitarist.â

VASSILIS ANGHELIKOPOULOS (âKathimeriniâ, Athens)
âThe âfascinatingâ sound of a guitar, according to M. Hadjidakis.â

PHOEBUS ANOYANAKIS (âAvgiâ, Athens)
âAt the core of his recital lay Bach (Second Lute Suite), which he rendered in consummate pre-classical style, beautiful sound and enviable technical skill⦠Benjamin Brittenâs Nocturne, opus 70, was admirable in its âstagingâ.â

GEORGE V. MONEMVASITIS (extract from Note CD sleeve âGrigoreas Plays Tzortzinakisâ)
âThe performance of the guitarist Kostas Grigoreas renders the character of the compositions with clarity and precision, suggesting a multi-level conception, which coincides with that of the composer, thus revealing his complex artistic perceptiveness and experience as a performer, which have been indispensable to the realization of this recordâ.

âGUITARâ MAGAZINE â London
âExcellent technique and sound.â

ARGYRIS ZELOS (âAthenoramaâ magazine; review of "Guitar in the Greek Mode")
âIt would be a mistake to confuse the word âmodeâ with the so-called âdromosâ [Greek for âway, roadâ] of traditional music. Dissociating himself, as a composer of a multifaceted background, from locality, he functions as an elaborate sculptor of sensations that have been liberated from both passing fashions and tradition-related obsessions.â

MARIA MARKOULI (âTa Neaâ, Athens; review of "Guitar in the Greek Mode")
ââ¦with his musical instinct and sensibility, the guitar plays a leading role of narrator.â

ALEXIS VAKIS (âDiphonoâ magazine; review of "Guitar in the Greek Mode")
âThe technique and sound of the soloist are once again beyond question, in a record that is one of the most significant creative contributions to its genre.â

GEORGIA LAIMOU ('e-go.gr'; review of "Guitar in the Greek Mode")
"Kostas Grigoreas possesses gifts that I greatly admire in a guitarist: power, economy, clarity, precision and a profound sense of rhythm, pouring forth with the spontaneity of natural charisma."

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