Daphne Djaferis

She was born in Cyprus. In 1969, she graduated from Boston University with a degree in film and television directing.

From 1969 to 1972, she worked as a director and producer at the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (RIK). From 1972 to 2004, she worked at the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) as a director across a wide range of programmes, including documentaries, music broadcasts, concerts, shows, dramatized series, and theatrical productions.

She directed the documentary Η Δόμνα και τα εγγόνια της (Domna and Her Grandchildren), which was broadcast by public television stations in ten European countries, presenting the history of Greek folk song through the biography of Domna Samiou.

Her programmes received awards twice in international television competitions, as well as in Greece at the “Prosopa” awards (2002). She served as a member and later a decision-maker for the European Union programme EAVE–MEDIA (1992), Head of the Music Programmes Department of ET1, a member of the ERT Cost Evaluation Committees, and Head of International Co-Productions at ERT.

From 1998, she organised and directed performances of folk songs, dances, and customs with Domna Samiou and her collaborators. From 2004, she focused on the production of CDs and DVDs featuring cycles of traditional songs with Domna Samiou.

Source: Daphne Djaferis

Records

Carnival Songs with Domna in Thessaloniki (Live)
  • AlbumDigital release, DVD2009Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Carnival Songs with Domna in Thessaloniki (Live)

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.
New Year Carol (Asia Minor)
  • AlbumCD2011Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Christmas, New Year and Epiphany Carols

Carols, wishes and praises for Christmas, New Year and Epiphany. Some less and some more well-known, coming from various regions of Greece (2011).
Of Nature and of Love
  • AlbumDVD2007Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Domna Samiou Sings Songs of Nature and of Love

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,.
Epic Songs of Warriors and Heroes
  • AlbumCD, Digital release2017Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Epic Songs of Warriors and Heroes

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.
Folk Fables in Song
  • AlbumCD, Digital release2008Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Folk Fables in Song

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.
I Tread the Earth Gently
  • AlbumCD, Digital release2008Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

I Tread the Earth Gently

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.
Early last summer
  • AlbumDigital release2022Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

My Old Torments

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.
Of Nature and of Love
  • AlbumCD, Digital release2006Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Of Nature and of Love

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.
Songs of History and Heroes
  • AlbumCD, Digital release2007Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Songs of History and Heroes

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.
Three Black-Eyed Girls
  • AlbumDigital releaseDomna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

The Earth’s Three Bounties

Wheat, wine, oil. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate· bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts (Psalm 104, 15)
SEE MORE

Concerts

A Bee Goes By
  • Συναυλία
  • 02/09/2001

A Bee Goes By

A concert for children performed by children with traditional songs, dances, games and reenactment of folk customs. Twelve children’s groups from Epirus, Kalyvia of Attica, Crete, Karpathos, Olympus, Zefyri of Attica, from Nea Erythraea representing the Asia Minor tradition, Volakas of Drama, Skyros, Larissa, the “Argonauts-Komninoi” from Kallithea, Kozani and […]
Carnival Songs with Domna Samiou
  • Συναυλία
  • 04/03/2003

Carnival Songs with Domna Samiou

A carnival feast at the stage of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall with songs, dances, and customs of the carnival period. In addition to Domna and her collaborators, musicians, singers, dancers and bands from regions of Greece take part, where even today the celebrations and rituals of Carnival maintain their authenticity.
Domna Samiou Sings Songs of Nature and of Love
  • Συναυλία
  • 11/10/2005

Domna Samiou Sings Songs of Nature and of Love

Traditional songs and events that follow the course of the cycle of the year. Starting from the autumn, which marks the beginning of the working and ecclesiastical year, a harvest revival, events of the twelve days of Christmas, Easter festivities, Saint John of Kledon customs, and summer festive events.
Songs of Asia Minor with Domna Samiou
  • Συναυλία
  • 08 & 09/03/2005

Songs of Asia Minor with Domna Samiou

An Asia Minor tribute concert. A tribute to the muse of the historical space of the Greek East. Traditional songs from the western coast of Asia Minor, the Sea of Marmara, Constantinople, Pontus and Cappadocia and two Byzantine hymns from the musical tradition of the Orthodox Church.
The Known and the Unknown Domna
  • Συναυλία
  • 29/10/1998

The Known and the Unknown Domna

A great concert called ‘The known and unknown Domna’, part of the series ‘Bridges’; a tribute concert for her seventieth birthday. Some of her closer friends and collaborators were invited as guests: Lykourgos Angelopoulos, Dionysis Savvopoulos, Eleftheria Arvanitaki as well as the two distinguished Turkish musicians Fahrettin Çimenli and Volkan […]
SEE MORE