Michael Eleftheriou

He was born in the UK to a Cypriot father and an Irish mother. Having graduated from the Law School, he decided not to practice the profession, escaping to Greece ‘to learn the language’.

Between 1990 and 1999, he worked as a teacher and later as a translator and a teacher trainer in provincial towns around Greece. Since 2000, he lives in Athens, and has devoted himself to translating a wide range of material: from folk songs and Medieval poems to contemporary literature, historical texts and art criticism.

He is proud to have been involved in all the productions of the ‘Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association’ since 2006.

Source: Michael Eleftheriou

Records

This recorded show includes stage performances of carnival songs and other related popular rituals from different areas of Greece, as they were presented at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall on 2003.
This videotaped stage performance, held at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on 2005, includes songs and rituals related to the cycle of the agricultural year,.
Songs inspired by the popular tradition of story-telling, relating tales of brave warriors, both high-ranked lords, and lowly soldiers. Centering on heroic Digenis, they originate from all parts of Greece.
Tales of the fabulous and the fantastic combining the real world with the supernatural. Narrating stories, often tragic, which might once have occurred – or could do so one day.
Here Domna collected some of her most favourable songs: slow and tranquil songs, melodious and sad; songs of sorrow and of love, of parting and of loved ones far away.
Reissue of the Caprice album Grekisk folkmusik (Ξενιτεμένο μου πουλí) on a CD with 9 extra tracks, and a comprehensively informative booklet about Greek folk music and the woman behind this production – Domna Samiou.
Songs of Asia Minor by Domna Samiou. Live recording from the concert ‘Songs of Asia Minor with Domna Samiou’ at the Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall, on 8/3/2005. Traditional songs from the western coasts of Asia Minor, Propontis, Constantinople, Pontus and Cappadocia.
The down-to-earth love of nature in these folk songs doesn’t derive from any form of romantic nostalgia; it lies instead in a pure experience of everyday life.
The retelling of fine, magnificent, heroic deeds from the past has always inspired a future path for every nation, the weft on which its future is woven. Austere and Doric, as stern as the heroes they describe.
This CD is a good companion to those who want to offer their children a hint of a different magical world.