In this concert, the Greek Music Ensemble will trace the long history of rembetiko, a world music genre beginning in the 1900’s and going up to the end of the 20th century. Rembetiko is a term used to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk music. Although it is now treated as a single genre, rembetiko is, musically speaking, a synthesis of elements of European music, the music of the various areas of the Greek mainland and the Greek islands, Greek Orthodox ecclesiastical chant, often referred to as Byzantine music, and the modal traditions of Ottoman art music and café music.

The concert will include popular songs of Rembetiko’s main representatives: Giannis Papaioannou, Mikhalis Genitsaris, Roza Eskenazi, Stratos Pagioumdzis, Spyros Peristeris, Rita Abatzi, Marika Ninou, Markos Vamvakaris, Manolis Chiotis, Vassilis Tsitsanis, and others.

The instrumentation will include a combination of modern and traditional Instruments. The performance will also include multimedia interactive moments, where live sound will be blending with recorded speech, movie clips, and other resources related to the life and work of the composers listed here and the history of the genre.