Hi There! my name is Stelios Petrakis. I am a musician, an instrument maker and I own a recording studio in Crete. I belong to the new generation of Greek trad musicians-composers and I am a student of Ross Daly. I like very much travelling and performing - creating music with other musicians and friends.I was born into the musical tradition of Crete ( my homeland )but I was intrerested in some related genres as well such as music from the mainland of Greece, music from Asia Minor Classical Ottoman music, and Balkan music. I took lessons from some respected masters of these genres such as Talip Ozkan, Necati Celik, Mehmet Erenler, Georgi Petrov.My main instrument is Lyre from Crete and I play as well lute and baglama. I also construct all the instruments I play. My favourite musicians are Giorgis Xylouris, Ross Daly, Talip Ozkan, Paco de Lucia (who doesn't like Paco???), Erkan Ogur, L'ham de foc, Socratis Sinopoulos, Trio Chemirani, Goran Bregovic,Mehmet Erenler, Vicente Amigo, Faiz al Faiz, Psarandonis, Manolo Sanlucar, Juan Carmona, Necati Celik, Dariush Talai, Harris Lambrakis, Notios Ihos etc . I have released two cd's so far, with the collaboration of many important musicians and friends (Ross Daly, Bijan Chemirani, Giorgis Xylouris, Harris Lamprakis etc). I perform with my own ensemble in Greece as well as abroad, I am playing in Crete with some of the most well respected musicians (such as Giorgis Xylouris, Vassilis Stavrakakis Giannis Xylouris, Mihalis Stavrakakis, Spyridoula Toutoudaki, Zaharias Spyridakis etc) and I also work as a soloist with various respected composers and other musical ensembles both in concerts and recordings. (Ross Daly, Stamatis Spanoudakis, Kristi Stassinopoulou, Palyrria, Bijan Chemirani, Notios Ihos,etc.) My two personal cds have received exceptional reviews and awards from the Greek and the international press. I like peace, I like being with my own friends in little small places without noise and crowd, having some glasses of raki and playing music. I like being in the nature, I like swimming and I practice underwater fishing. I love Crete and it's music and I want to introduce both to all the people I know. If you are interested to learn more about me and my work: www.steliospetrakis.com Thanks !
