For the last two and half years I have been performing with MandolinARTE, the Plucked Strings Orchestra of Athens, playing Mandola and Mandocello. MandolinARTE is a great orchestra, which is having a big impact in the Greek music scene and is making the mandolin popular again in Greece.
One of the greatest activities of MandolinARTE is the cooperation with the famous and beloved Greek singer Alkistis Protopsalti, which resulted to a series of sold-out concerts in the Athens Concert Hall, the most prestigious concert hall in Greece that can accommodate an audience of 1600 people. More about these concerts will follow, but for the time being enjoy a video from a rehearsal of MandolinARTE with Alkistis Protopsalti.
In this video, we rehearse the great Greek song “Lava”, and the video was recorded and aired by Greek National TV.
More about MandolinARTE
Mandolinarte was formed as the Plectrum Strings Orchestra of Athens in 1994. The repertoire includes classical music works for the mandolin from A. Vivaldi, L.V. Beethoven, J. Kuwahara, C. Wolki, R. Calace, D. Nikolaou etc. but also arrangements for the mandolin on works from J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, J. Brahms, A. Piazzola, N. Rota, G. Rossini, G. Verdi, M. Hatjidaki etc.
The Orchestra has numerous performances in Greece, in theatres like Peiraous Municipality Theater, Holargos Municipality Theater, sites like Marathonas, Sounio, Acropolis, Plaka and various festivals but has also been invited to perform abroad.
The members of the orchestra are well known musicians that are active artistically, giving recitals in Greece and abroad, performing with Symphonic Orchestras, participating in various recording productions and cooperating with artists from the Greek and International repertoire. As members of the Classical Mandolin Orchestra of Athens they were awarded the 1st prize in the International Competition of Plectrum Instruments in Julich Koslar in Germany at 1998, under the direction of Michalis Veidirlis.
Mandolinarte vision is to present the mandolin as a soloist instrument and the mandolin orchestra as an independent stand-alone orchestra with unique repertoire and sound.
More about Alkistis Protopsalti
In her artistic carrier in the last forty years, she has worked with some of the greatest Greek and foreign composers like Dimos Moutsis, Giannis Spanos, Stavros Xarhakos, Mikis Theodorakis, Stamatis Kraounakis, Nikos Antypas, Stefanos Korkolis, Ilias Andriopoulos, Evanthia Remboutsika, Stamatis Spanoudakis, Dionysis Savvopoulos and Goran Bregovic, as well as with directors like Andreas Voutsinas, Dimitris Papaioannou and Giannis Kakleas. She has also performed with well-known Greek Symphony Orchestras: the Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Athens, as well as with the world- renowned Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Kremlin Presidential Symphony Orchestra, the Oxford Philarmonic Orchestra and the Boston Pops.
Alkistis Protopsalti has introduced Greek Music to some of the most famous theaters of the world, with highlights of her international appearances performances in the Radio City Music Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Theatre of New York.
Her concerts have been hosted in Australia, USA, UK, Egypt, Belgium, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Israel, Canada, Cuba, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and China, countries where she has proudly represented the music and culture of Greece.
Alkistis Protopsalti has performed in English, French, Spanish, Corsican, Hebrew, Chinese and Arabic, receiving always very positive comments and reviews by the International Press.
She has performed in the closing ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics, in the Head of States Summit of the EU and the EU Foreign Ministers Meeting. She has officially represented Greece on multiple occasions: in the World Expos in Portugal, Spain and Germany, in the cultural events marking the 35 years of Greek-Chinese friendship, in Cuba as a guest of the Greek Embassy in Havana ahead of the Greek Presidency of the European Union, in the Alexandria Library e.tc.
She has also appeared in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Special Olympics, where she interpreted the Olympic Hymn along with the famous Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo.
Her voice is heard in the Walt Disney movies “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, where she interpreted the main theme song and “Tangled”, where she interpreted the character of Gothel.
More about the other musicians performing
In this video, three great musicians are performing with MandolinARTE.
Thomas Kontogeorgis is on the piano. Thomas is also the arranger.
Kostas Alexis is on the drums,
Aggelos Tzamarias is playing the trombone and
Enjoy!
