From Epirus to the Rest of Greece and the Balkans — A Polyphonic Journey
Description
A workshop based on the archaic singing traditions of Epirus polyphony.
We will explore the voices and the different roles that emerge within the collective nature of the polyphonic ensemble. We will seek to understand how voices meet, intertwine, and coexist, each maintaining its own space within the whole.
The simplicity of the melodies takes center stage, but alongside it is the freedom of the voices—a freedom that does not stray from the strict rules of the song but finds its own path within them. Under the guidance of Martha Mavroidi, we will explore new expressions of the Epirus polyphonic tradition through new arrangements of traditional songs.
The differences from place to place, the comparison of Greek-language singing with Albanian- and Vlach-language singing, as well as the mutual influences that travel from voice to voice, from place to place.
The themes of the lyrics, the forms of the songs, and the way these shape the singing and its expression.
And the local dialect, not only as a language but as a fundamental component of expression—the sound of each place that comes through in the words, the voices, and the song.
Martha Mavroidi
Martha Mavroidi is a musician and composer. She graduated from the Pallini Music High School. She studied Musicology in Athens, Ethnomusicology in London (SOAS) and Los Angeles (UCLA), and Contemporary Music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, with scholarships from the Onassis Foundation and the Fulbright Foundation. She has performed in concerts of traditional and contemporary music in Greece and abroad (Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Onassis Foundation in New York, the Greek National Opera, the Athens Festival, the Onassis Cultural Center, among others). With the Martha Mavroidi Quartet, she has given concerts in Europe and America. She has founded the musical ensembles “Smari” and “Ta Paichidia,” as well as the vocal ensembles “Yasemi” and “Cheilanthi.” She directs the “I Rodia” Traditional Music Choir and the Rodia Polyphonic Workshop. She has released six solo albums and a book of compositions for vocal ensemble. She is the artistic director of the Tinos World Music Festival. She has composed music for short and feature-length films by director Zacharias Mavroidis (Pink River, Tomorrow Already, Princess’ Taste, The Tour Guide), for documentaries and dance performances (Bull, 7 Trax, Metapolitefsi, The Guard Dog, Vacchai, The Parrot, M, Lady R, Speechless, Afterwords, Mouth) in collaboration with choreographers Menti Mega, Sofia Mavragani, and others, which have been presented at various venues and festivals in Greece (Athens Festival, Onassis Cultural Center). He has composed music for and participates in the performance *Hello to Emptiness* by choreographer Stephanie Tiersch and the Mouvoir company, which is touring Greece (Greek National Opera), Germany (Tanzhaus, LOFFT), France (Théâtre de Nîmes), Korea (Seoul International Dance Festival), and India (Goethe-Institut in Kolkata). She has composed a song cycle for a polyphonic ensemble titled “Six,” based on six Greek customs, which was presented in Ancient Messene as part of the “All of Greece, One Culture” program by the vocal ensemble Chores. He participated in the Greek National Opera’s tribute to Manos Hadjidakis by arranging a series of the composer’s works for the vocal ensemble Yasemi. Commissioned works from the Greek National Opera include the musical work “The Song of Kyra-Domnitsa” with a libretto by Maros Vassiliadou, commissioned by the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera to mark the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution, and the work “Katalogi” for voice and a quintet of traditional wind and string instruments, based on the “Moiroloi of the Virgin Mary,” for the 1st Festival of Liturgical Music; the work “Synaxari”—three musical-poetic portraits of Halepas, Papadiamantis, and Theophilos, set to texts by Pantelis Boukalas, for the 2nd Festival of Liturgical Music; the work “Lazarakia” for the Children’s Choir of the Greek National Opera, and the work “Madre Salonico,” which was staged at the Alternative Stage in April 2025. In 2022, he composed the original music for the production of F. G. Lorca’s *Blood Wedding*, which was staged at the National Theater and directed by Maria Maganari.
Thanasis Viltaniotis
Thanasis Viltaniotis is a researcher and performer of Epirus polyphonic song, with a long-standing presence in the field of traditional and choral music. He is a founding member and President of the Pogonisi Polyphonic Song Association, and since 2022 he has been actively involved in teaching and coordinating polyphonic groups for children and adults. She teaches Epirus polyphonic singing to the children’s group “PogoNeoi” and at the Lyceum of Greek Women in Ioannina, and has conducted workshops and seminars in Greece and abroad. At the same time, she actively participates in the organization and promotion of the Polyphonic Song and Music Festivals in Pogoni and is involved in the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of the traditional repertoire of Epirus.