Anatoliama Ensemble specializes in the rich musical traditions of Greece, Cyprus and Eastern Mediterrannean regions. The ensemble consists of three highly acclaimed musicians and educators from Greece and Cyprus, all of whom are graduates of the prestigious Berklee College of Music. They have all studied their musical traditions in depth and they currently present them in the United States and around the world.
Their story began in 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts where the members met through the Berklee College of Music community, with a common love and passion for traditional music, and since then, they have built an audience amongst Greek and non-Greek communities around the world.
The ensemble’s mission is to present and preserve Greek traditional music, through live concerts, in the United States and abroad as well as to offer music educational programs to academic institutions and the youth of various Greek communities.
The ensemble’s members have a long list of credentials that include performances with Petroloukas Halkias, Christos Zotos, Danilo Perez, Dave Liebman, Anat Cohen to name a few and appearances in prestigious venues such as: the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Princeton University, MIT, Harvard University, Cornell University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Megaron – Athens Concert Hall, WOMEX in Poland and the 2018 Annual Archon Weekend event in New York City.
Vasilis Kostas is an acclaimed laouto player from Epirus, Greece who has been featured at Carnegie Hall, Montreal Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival and WOMEX. He is a graduate of the Masters Program of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and has shared the stage with Simon Shaheen, Antonio Serrano and Tigran Hamasyan. His groundbreaking performances on the laouto aim to open new horizons for the instrument in both the Greek traditional and jazz worlds. This is featured in his latest collaboration with Grammy Award winning pianist Danilo Perez’s “Global Messengers’ group and his upcoming duo album recording with master clarinetist Petroloukas Halkias.
Panagiotis Aivazidis is a rising kanun player from Serres, Greece. He attended the Music School of Serres, the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece, and Berklee College of Music on full-tuition scholarship. He has performed at Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall in tribute to Domna Samiou, a prominent Greek researcher and performer of Greek folk music. He has studied under figures in music such as Goksel Baktagir, Simon Shaheen, Christiane Karam, Alain Mallet, and Socratis Sinopoulos. He has collaborated with the Consulate General of Greece in Boston, the Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, and Tufts Department of Music as a guest lecturer.
Born and raised in Nicosia Cyprus, George Lernis is a world recognized percussionist, drummer, and educator who currently resides in the U.S. Having grown up with the musical traditions of the Middle East/Eastern Mediterranean regions and later on getting formal training as a Jazz drummer from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, George is considered to be bi-musical. He has recorded and collaborated with prominent figures such as: John Patitucci, Danilo Pérez, Antonio Sanchez, Dave Liebman, Anat Cohen, Tiger Okoshi and A Far Cry String Orchestra just to name a few. In 2021 George graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music Global Jazz Institute with his second masters degree in Jazz performance. George’s latest record album ”Between Two Worlds” featuring world renowned bass player John Patitucci was released on June 10th, 2022. Finally, George is the president and founder of the Anatoliama INC non-profit whose mission is to preserve the musical traditions of Greece around the U.S. and the world in the form of concerts and educational workshops.
New England Greek Orchestra is a new and innovative music educational program of the Anatoliama non profit organization that brings together talented music students from Greek-American and other communities. It provides them with the opportunity to systematically study in depth and explore the rich world of Greek traditional music. While similar programs regarding other musical traditions such as Arabic and Turkish exist in the US, it is a fact there is a lack of representation of our Greek musical heritage and more importantly how it can be passed on to the next generations through systematic work, research and music educational initiatives.
New England Greek Orchestra is a permanent program that will officially start in Boston this coming September. It refers to weekly music classes and seminars with renowned artists from Greece, who will work with our students and present a joint concert together at the end of every academic year.
Upon completion, the students will get to perform a live concert along with a master of Greek traditional music, who will be visiting our program from Greece.
At the end of June, there will be a selective process of auditions and interviews where up to 15 participants will be accepted to start their studies on a full scholarship.
Anatoliama aims to offer music educational programs and workshops of Greek traditional music to academic institutions and Greek American communities in the US. Inspiring the youth to explore the variety of our rich musical heritage or rediscover and revisit elements of their cultural identity has always been a big part of our ensemble’s mission.
The workshops are adjusted to the musical level and experience of each group and they include the teaching of Greek and Mediterranean melodies, rhythms of the region, as well as discussions of the historical and cultural background of the music.
Some of our group’s past workshops were held at Emerson College, Emmanuel College, Tufts University and the Greek School of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Lynn, MA.
Get in touch with Anatoliama Ensemble at info@anatoliama.org or by filling out the form
