…Even our heart suffers and pains
is fully occupied and “drifted” by love
and with bouzouki and guitars
sings softly and sweet like a bird…

Seminars-Meetings

Seminars-Meetings

The rebetiko seminar-meeting, which has been running continuously from 2009 until today, in collaboration with the Faltaits Museum and the Municipality of Skyros, along with its parallel and open to public events, is an institution that transcends the boundaries of Greek territory.
Its reach extends to Sweden, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Turkey, Cyprus, Finland, France, Netherlands, Israel etc. In addition, it has demonstrated the need to preserve and promote Rebetiko song as one of the essential timeless components of our urban folk culture  

Its timeless value reinforces our music with new elements, helping the young musicians to create and improve their musical expression, especially after Rebetiko’s recognition and registration December 2017 in UNESCO’s List of Humanity Intangible Cultural Heritage 

September 15, 2014 for our band “parapetamenoi” “neglected ones” is an important day. That night we had a concert open to the public in the garden of the Museum “of Greek Folk Music Instruments Fivos Anogianakis” in Athens. At the end of the concert we had a meeting with Stavroula-Villy Fotopoulou, Historian- Folklore Director of Modern Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture in Greece and Lambros Liavas, Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Athens. That night we decided to make an effort Rebetiko to take its place “in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Catalogs”, like so many other cultural elements … all over the world…it was time.

Finally, Rebetiko was recognized in December 2017 as an element of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage. The pioneers of the effort are the above mentioned and the Archaeologist-official of the Ministry of Culture Mara Kalozoumis. Our band worked together with other volunteers in order to create and formulate the relevant UNESCO submission dossier. Skyros International Seminar-meeting is one of the UNESCO reference centers for the recognition of rebetiko in the catalogs of intangible cultural heritage.

Proceedings of the rebetiko seminar-meetings in Skyros

Proceedings of the rebetiko seminar-meetings in Skyros are posted on the website of the seminar. Among others you can find a historical and sociological approach of the development of rebetiko song, the names of the musical scales (dromoi) in rebetika, historical references to the life and work of great composers, singers and skilled players of rebetiko (Thanasis Manetas, Costas Bezos (A. Kostis), Marika Papagika, Panagiotis Tountas, George Mitsakis, Giannis Papaioannou, Costas Kaplanis), even for not famous but not less important musicians of the interwar period (Kostas Faltaits, Grigoris Asikis, Dimitris Atraidis, Giakoumis Montanaris, Costas Tzovenos, Stavros Pantelidis) but also personal information for the not famous Urban musicians.
Historical data for Mortes, Koutsavakia and Magkes. You can also find Fado and rebetiko social relationships, an interesting approach titled “women in rebetiko” by the rebetiko researcher Gail Holst-Warhaft, an approach to the dances of 9, information about the flowering of rebetiko in Piraeus, the imprints of rebetiko in the neighborhoods of Piraeus, the growth of rebetiko in Thessaloniki and of course the rebetiko in Finland as well as personal revelations how the rebetiko touches our soul.