Group Member Bios

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Mal Barsamian's musical career began when he was four years old playing the dumbeg (hand drum) with his father Leo Barsamian at an Armenian picnic. Mal comes from a family of oud (lute) players starting with his grandfather, great-uncle, uncle and of course his father. He has gone on to become a sought-after oud player and clarinetist. He also plays the dumbeg, guitar, bouzouki, and saxophone. He has performed for 40 years in Armenian, Greek, and Middle Eastern communities around the country. He has performed with the late Esber Korporcu, an important figure in Boston’s Middle-Eastern music community, and with  Mehmet Sanlikol’s Dunya organization. Mal is a specialist in music written by Armenian composers active in Istanbul during the later years of the Ottoman Empire. He is a trained  classical guitarist and has earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in classical guitar performance studying with Robert Paul Sullivan at the New England Conservatory of Music. Mal is on the applied faculty staff at Tufts University's World Music Department, teaching oud, saxophone, clarinet and percussion. He is an applied faculty member at Boston College and at the Middle Eastern Ensemble of New England Conservatory of Music.

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Makis Emmanouilidis, a Financial Advisor who plays the guitar and does vocals, made his debut in the Boston music scene in 1997 as one of the founding members of the group Journey to Ithaca. The group has performed in many venues in New England such as BU’s Chai Performance Center, MIT’s Kresge Auditorium and Hellenic College’s Maliotis Cultural Center. Makis, who was born in Kavala in northern Greece, writes poetry and has composed a number of original songs featured in the first two Journey to Ithaca CDs, “A stroll through our dreams" and “A taste of chocolate.” In 2008, Makis, joined Rebetoparea  to pursue his passion for the Greek rebetiko style music. Rebetoparea has performed at Harvard’s John Knowles Auditorium and appears regularly in area venues. His latest work, “Secret Life," features verses and melodies that were inspired by the novels of Angelos Terzakis, a notable Greek writer.

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Georgios Galanakis was born in Heraklion, Crete, and started music lessons at a young age learning the traditional Cretan instrument of lyra. A few years later he started playing the electric guitar and joined several local bands. He continued his studies in music at the Middlesex University of London and received a degree at jazz performance. In 2013 he received a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. Since his arrival in Boston he has been collaborating with many musicians and participating in various projects of different music genres.

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Vocalist and composer Panayota Haloulakou co-leads the Greek Music Ensemble along with Panos Liaropoulos and has been a member of the ensemble since 2002.​ She performs a variety of Greek music such as rebetika, laika, “entehna” and is especially interested in traditional music. She has collaborated with the majority of Boston-based Greek-American musicians with well-known Greek artists George Dalaras, Yiannis Markopoulos, and Notis Mavroudis in Herodion Theater and Megaron Musikis in Athens, Greece. ​Haloulakou also has a deep love for jazz and experimental music and she currently leads her jazz quartet with Lefteris Kordis, Mark Zaleski, and Karen Kocharyan.  She has performed in major concert halls and venues in Greece, Boston, the greater New England, Missouri, Texas, Florida, and Vermont to participate in Greek and jazz festivals either with her own band, or as a guest artist. She is a Fulbright scholar and holds a Master’s degree in Jazz performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston.

 

Lefteris Kordis is a pianist, composer, Inner Circle Music recording artist, and associate professor at Berklee College of Music. He was born in Athens, Greece and graduated from the Ionian University in Corfu and at the age of 18 he performed with Mikis Theodorakis on both piano and trumpet. He received the Fulbright, the Onassis, the Ruth Shapiro and the Gerondelis Foundations awards in order to pursue a Master’s and a Doctorate degree at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. Kordis is the leader of the “Lefteris Kordis Jazz Trio” and the new “Mediterrana” (Greek Jazz) project. He is a member of the newly formed Greek-American band “Penny Muse Band,” and also serves as organist and gospel choir director at the Rush Memorial AME Zion Church in Cambridge.

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Yianni Mitaras started playing bouzouki at the age of 14 and took formal lessons from Kosta Gourgoumi and from the renown bouzouki player Harry Lemonopoulos. He was a founding member of the Greek bands Asteria and Glentzedes. While living in Colorado, Yianni played at the National Folk Festival and also at a musical with choreographer Sunny Newman. Back in Massachusetts he started the Skorpios Orchestra and worked as a performer at the Averof Restaurant for 12 years. During the same period he toured with George Abdo, a famous Arab singer. For the last seven years Yianni has performed with Rebetoparea. He concentrates on concerts and similar music venues.

 

Nektaria Sofou-Boustris was born in Hiliomodi outside of Corinth in Greece.  After graduating from Deree College in Athens with a BA in psychology, she came to Boston to pursue her dream and study voice.  In 1995 she graduated from the Berklee College of Music with a Diploma in Vocal Performance.  Nektaria continued her studies at Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, earning a Master's Degree in Education/Music Education in 1999.   She has worked as a general music and chorus teacher in Dedham public schools as well as in Tot Spot, Greek 4 Kids and Little Halos. Nektaria has performed live in various venues in Greece and the Boston area.  

 

Sandy (Matoula) Theodorou, a school psychologist, was born in Piraeus, Greece, but her family roots are in villages of Epiros in northeast Greece and Cephalonia, an Ionian Sea island.  She plays the accordion and laouto and sings with the Boston-based Greek bands, Rebetoparea and Meraki.  She has danced with the Boston Greek dance groups Lykeion Ellinidon and the Sons and Daughters of Alexander the Great. 

 

Annemoon van Erp started out as a classical violinist in the Netherlands and took up fiddle and harmony singing in a country and bluegrass band after she moved to Boston. Under the guidance of Beth Bahia Cohen, Annemoon studied  traditional folk music from the Balkans, including Greece, and her life has not been the same since. She performs regularly with Rebetoparea and the group Meraki, which plays traditional Greek folk music for dance events and workshops. In her spare time she studies the health effects of air pollution and enjoys rowing and gardening.

 

Kosmas Vrouvlianis is a civil engineer, who was born in Pentalofos in Northern  Greece. He is a self-taught bouzouki and baglama player and a student of rebetiko music.  He has performed with many New England area music ensembles in the last three decades. Until recently he had his own rebetiko-related show on sfinaki.gr radio program. He is now preparing a similar program for radioaerostato.gr. His programs are known for their scholarly approach to their musical selections, which include historical and sociopolitical contexts.