Press

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Athens' Rebetiki Istoria to Perform in Chicago
By Maria A. Karamitsos on April 06, 2011
in "The Greek Reporter"

Katerina's, an eclectic club with its soul in the arts, will host two special shows this weekend. On Friday, April 15, Katerina's presents Rebetiki Istoria, on tour from Athens, Greece. This is their only Chicago appearance. The group is comprised of Pavlos Vassiliou on voice/tzoura, singer Eirini Liokoukoudaki, Nikolaos Menegas and Giorgos Petroudis on bouzouki, Vangelis Nikolaidis on guitar and Yona Stamatis on violin. The group is said to perform many early Rembetika works, including a repertoire of difficult and unusual songs rarely performed today. This special night of live Rembetiko is not to be missed. 

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Excerpt:
"Rebetika Music Provides Greek Resistance Among Outside Political Pressures"
By Kelsey Donk on April 25, 2012 
in "The Index" 

Last Tuesday night, Stamatis and Vassiliou joined again over Rebetika music to perform for students, faculty, and community members at Kalamazoo College. Stamatis, a Mellon postdoctoral fellow and visiting professor, introduced the two-hour performance on Tuesday night as an educational opportunity. In the week before the concert, Vassiliou interacted with students in Stamatis’ classes and in the Anthropology and Sociology department to help them understand rebetika. Stamatis stopped during the concert to provide a history of Greece and Rebetika music, the topic she researched for her dissertation.

Rebetika developed in the late-nineteenth century in urban Greek cities. According to Stamatis, rebetika artists usually sing about poverty, love, and loss...“Rebetika is not only a style of music: it is a way of life and a worldview,” Stamatis said in an email. “I believe that the serious and devoted rebetika musician does not make an active choice to play rebetika. Rather, the music chooses her.” Vassiliou plays at his tavern every night, but rarely plays elsewhere, so this concert was very special, Stamatis said. “The Rebetiki Istoria residency has allowed students, faculty and community members to experience live rebetika performance, a rare treat for American audiences,” Stamatis said.

“I lived alone without love, and all was dark around me,” Vassiliou sang in Greek as he played his traditional tzoura instrument. “This one is a bit darker, but it gets happier towards the end,” Stamatis said as the introduced the grouping of the three happiest rebetika love songs she could find. As Vassiliou sang, other band members Nikolaos Menegas and Vangelis Nikolaidis and Stamatis herself played the bouzouki and guitar and joined in to sing."