Participating Musicians

Taxiarhis Hanos, vocal

Giorgios Marinakis, violin

Manousos Klapakis, percussion

Nikos Filippidis, clarinet / ney

Kostas Filippidis, laouto

Nikos Filippidis, clarinet/ney

Nikos Filippidis, the son of the well-known clarinetist Filippa, was born in Kerasovo, Konitsa, in the Ioannina prefecture of Epirus.  He comes from a long line of musicians growing up in an environment of musicians.  At the age of six he began playing the floyera and at  eight he was already devoted to the study of traditional instruments.  He played floyera, santouri, violin and second klaríno with his father as they toured various festivals and local celebrations.  At sixteen he moved to Athens where he continued his training while practicing his craft in a wide circle of engagements. His particular skills elicited invitations from various parts of Greece and he toured the country extensively before returning to Athens for a long collaboration with the Dance Theater of Dora Stratou. He has participated in numerous concerts and recordings, in Greece and abroad.  Nikos became skilled on all traditional instruments due to the demands of long hours of playing at local festivities where the musicians would play nonstop for days and nights.    In order not to exhaust themselves on one particular instrument, they would trade instruments with each other.  His performance in all traditional instruments is extremely skillful and expresses his vast experience and knowledge as well as his sensitivity.   He builds his own unique clarinets and is well versed in the music idioms of Greece.  His goal is to bring to the public the variety of sounds and rhythms of his birthplace, Konitsa of the region of Epirus

Kostas Filippidis, laouto

Kostas Filippidis, Nikos Filippides brother, was born in Kerasovo Konitsas in 1950. He is son to the renowned clarinetist Filippa, with whom he played since he was twelve. For many years the collaborator of Dora Stratou and of other major Greek traditional musicians, he displays a mastery of craft that commands wide respect from his colleagues, who consider him a “live musical archive”.

Oral History Workshop

A collaboration between the
Orpheus Hellenic Folklore Society
and the
Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center

Objective
To gather information that captures the Greek immigrant experience for the intention of providing material for the OHFS concert in 2005 and for the HMCC archives.

The purpose of the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center (HMCC) Oral History Program is to preserve the history of the Greeks of America by interviewing and recording individuals or groups.  Those interviewed can be of Greek descent or can be spouses or friends of Greeks.  Through questionnaires, audio and video recordings, and photos of the people being interviewed, staff and volunteers of the OHFS and HMCC will capture the stories of the Greeks of America. The material (questionnaires, audio and video tapes, transcriptions of those tapes, and photos) will be deposited in the archival collection of the OHFS and HMCC.  The material may be used for any of the following purposes: research, documentaries, public presentations, and publication in books, journals, and magazines or on the Internet.

As a repository of these histories, HMCC will ensure that the accounts of the Greeks of America will never be lost.  The materials will be made available to the public when the Museum library opens at the HMCC’s permanent location on Halsted Street in the near future.  They may also be used for research, documentaries, public presentations, and publication in books, journals, magazines, or on the Internet so that generations to come will know the lives of those who preceded them.

Interviews

Napoleon Damianides

James M. Mezilson

Effie Feretos Kakavas

Katerina Robakis Kouchoukos