Pantelis Pavlidis

Seven seas duet - Barcelona - QRO magazine , Spain

Pandelis was born in 1959 in Lefcona, Greece. He started playing the mandolin, flute and guitar at school. He first started playing the pontian lyre at 25. Pantelis also plays other instruments such as the Cretan lute, percussion instruments of the Meditteranean including the dulcimer (santour) and working with singers. Pandelis Pavlidis is not simply a performer; every tune that vibrates the chords of his lyre, seems to include all the wisdom of time that carved him and the freshness of the new.

- GALLMANN Memorial Foundation

From an event in Kenya. Presentation of the project "HELIOS" - GALLMANN Memorial Foundation

Article in a spanish magazine - My feet in flames - Madrid

Spanish magazine - MusikaZuzenean - Bilbo, Spain

The artists were magical - the audience responded! Those who had the opportunity to be at Helidonopetra Theatre in Maronia, Greece on Friday night enjoyed an initiation into the magic of sound and image, music and dance; a cultural voyage, an exploration of the place itself and its traditions.

Everyone attending was left spellbound by the music and dance performance entitled “The Victory of Bacchae” by Pantelis Pavlidis held with the participation of “EYDOYSIN” group, the Sarakasi Trust dance troupe from Nairobi, Kenya and leading dancer from India, Radhika Shah. “The Momogeri of Thrilorio”, who appeared on stage before closure just like in the performance at the ancient theatre of Maronia left their own impression in the event wearing sheepskins and their tall hats and dancing in circle. They served as a bridge linking many different traditions and antiquity with the present.

The warm participation of the people proved that local audiences appreciate the Maronia-Sapes Festival and the numerous quality performances held in our community.
- MARONIA-SAPES FESTIVAL

He took us on a journey with his lyre to the Black Sea and the Aegean, our "boat" being the poetry of the ancient Greeks. Self-taught, the composer Pantelis Pavlidis, initiates us into the archetypal sounds of the lyre, which are made as described by the myth according to which, the god Hermes created it and offered it to the god of light, Apollo.

From an early age he wanted to become a musician. “I grew up with my grandmother and grandfather in the village of Lefkonas in the prefecture of Serres. When I was in high school, I read ancient Greek, I felt an 'emotional bond' with the language. Perhaps my native language, Pontic which is an archaic Greek dialect, I felt united with the ancient philosophers and lyric poets. For this reason I never felt that we were separated by the many centuries”, says the composer.

After his studies on many musical archetypes he has created his own personal musical awareness
With the lyre in hand he has traveled in many countries in Europe, Africa and Asia, even in faraway Japan. "In these countries they love the Greek sound," (Athens News Agency – Macedonian Press Agency)
What makes his music unique is the lyre, which he has studied and learned by himself. "The lyre was known in Greece from antiquity. According to the legend, Hermes stole the cattle that Apollo was guarding. Looking out of the cave he saw a turtle, removed its shell and attached to it ox gut strings. Thus was built the first lyre. When Apollo discovered the theft of the cattle and complained to Zeus, Hermes gave the lyre to Apollo who was enchanted by its sound.”

Based on this myth, Pantelis Pavlidis has written the musical work "The sound of the Lyra in Delos" and his vision is to present this work one day at the birthplace of Apollo, the god of Music, on the island of Delos.

The lyre is an instrument with which he was able to discover unique musical paths, which led him to a personal creation. "I try to touch the souls of people with the sounds that come from eternity through the ancestors and accompany them with emotional memories," the composer says.

His first musical work "Sound of the Ages" treats the relationship between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The work has ancient lyric poetry (poets from the Black Sea and the Aegean) as well as a part of the lyrics from Medea by Euripides – the story of the Argonauts on their destination to Colchis. Black Sea. The work begins with the Orphic Hymn for Apollo and selected from the poems of Sappho, Alcaeus, Alkman, Aristotle and other poets. At the climax of the work the ancient Pirrixios dance still danced by the Greeks of the Black Sea is performed. This is a story that has influenced cultures and people. "


Pantelis Pavlidis does not only express the timelessness of an ancient civilization, he touches the inspiration that Hellenism gave to humanity. He was able to give to the music loving public the great moments of the Ancient Greek World from different sources, that have survived into our era.

“His playing has the warmth that, dares to touch the divine, to steal the fire of world music and to give it to the mortals. For this reason, Pantelis Pavlidis embraces the entire cosmos with his compositions. This is his role and purpose,” said about the composer Professor Nikos Lygeros of the University of Lyon.

Pantelis Pavlidis started his journey with the musical group "Pan", which played traditional songs from all over Greece. The next group was "Mediterranean". In 1998, he created the group "Evdousin", which presented its own musical compositions, such as "Sounds of the Ages", ”Accept me"," Sounds of the Black Sea and the Aegean ", etc.

- The Athens Macedonian News Agency, 2010

Sounds of the Aeons, from the music of the Black Sea and the Aegean, have been the major influences on the creative work of Pantelis Pavlidis, having its sources in the poetry of antiquity from the likes of Alkman, Alkaios, Pindar, Aristotelis, Ivikos, Sapfo and pieces from “Medea” from Euripides and simultaneously completes the purpose and reason for the work “SOUNDS OF THE BLACK SEA AND THE AEGEAN”.
Pantelis Pavlidis has gathered music in his many years of researching, and has given his personal vision and aesthetic to this work, which began as a complex musical story and is a combination of instrumental pieces and poetic writings, ancient and contemporary, that speak of the Black Sea and the Aegean. Melodies from the Pontos and having musical phrases from the songs of Asia Minor and Karpothos that intertwine and have been filtered, creating a different and interesting sound, every melody that vibrates the strings of the lyre show to have all of the wisdom of time and simultaneously, the freshness of the new and something personal.
All of these render the music fascinating, possible and diachronic.P. Pavlidis is amongst one of the more important composers that recreate the art of contemporary popular music.
In a few words: an interesting proposal from the world of contemporary composition, that has as its starting point traditional music. “SOUNDS OF THE BLACK SEA AND THE AEGEAN” that come from the depths of time, have blended and are expressed with current expressive means, this music conveys a sense of the ‘ancestral’.1999 found the group “EYDOYSIN”, which is constituted by traditional and western instruments, with the goal of studying the relation between the ancient lyric poetry and municipal performance, a personal interpretation through the fables and the ceremonies that function up to our days, with which it interprets his compositions and the music of the Mediterranean in concerts, in Greece and abroad.

A few words about the lyre player and artist Pandelis Pavlidis

Pandelis appears in various parts of Greece as a member of traditional music groups. In 1992 he represents the Pontian musical tradition at the 2nd Mediterranean Lyre Festival of Kassos.
At the same time and through his experience with musical traditional beyond the Pontian one and playing instruments such as the Cretan lute, percussion instruments of the Mediterranean, cannon dulicimer (santour), ney, as well as working with singers, he forms a personal musical conscience. His music, although embracing all the features of style and technique of the Pontian lyre, does not close its doors to any other form of folk or artistic but of his instrument itself too, the lyre, which when it sings, it does it in such a natural and beautiful way, without the weight of the technical superfluity or the musical distortion.
Since 1990 he is a member of the ARMOS ENSEMBLE with which he co-interprets Mediterranean music and he appears in concerts, in Greece and abroad.
Concluding this brief presentation I would like to point out: Pandelis Pavlidis is not simply a performer; every tune that vibrates the chords of his lyre, seems to include all the wisdom of time that carved him and the freshness of the new, of the personal. If this is the characteristic feature of every folk artist, then Pandelis takes another step: his compositions and re-compositions include valuable elements such as clarity in style and musical articulation, blending of original contemporary sound, rich in modes and structure impromptus, innovations in the use of the bow, which revive the instrument’s technique and, of course, the big doses of multi-timing and polyrhythm. All these make his music exciting, powerful, diachronic. In my personal judgment P. Pavlidis is included among the most significant artistic creators but renovators, as well, of contemporary folk music art.

EYDOYSIN
The aim of our group is to deliver to a wider audience the highest moments of the ancient Greek word, through meticulously chosen fragments from archives which throughout their living silence have survived until today and they are for us one of the greatest emotions that touch our souls.
The ancient lyric poetry has references not only to the past but also to the future.
The variety of its verses expresses the finest shades of our thoughts as well as the innermost vibrations of the heart.
The pollen of the lyric poetry together with the myth brings true clarity through the sounds of the lyre.

PYRRIHIOS DANCE
Pyrrihi . A dancing sport with military character. It was a dance with weapons (enoplios), known by the name Pyrrihios and constituted a type of armed warriors dance (enoplios). It was also danced by children, adolescents and men, as well by women.
At the beginning of the enoplios dance the dancers, holding shields and spears and wearing helmets, imitated the movements of warriors in the hour of battle. The dance was distinguished for the liveliness of its movements and the paradoxical rotations of body. For the birth of the pyrrihis there exist various versions. One reports that it was an imitation of the dance of Pallada Athena, who was been born well armed from the head of Dias(Zeus), shook the shield and the spear dancing an enoplio dance, or that it became in recollection of the Dance of Athena after her victory over the Giants. Another version says that pyrrihi was firstborn at the siege of Troy and was performed for first time near the fire, that had been set by the Greeks in order to burn the deceased Patroklos. The third version reports that it was first danced by Dorians in Crete, while others want the origin of enoplios dance to be Laconic. It is still reported that pyrrihio was first danced by Neoptolemos, hero of Troy and son of Achilles, from his joy that he killed Efrypylos, son of Tilefos.
The import of the pyrrihis to Athens, likely as a sport of Panathinaion and “en Astei Dionysion”, began in Sparta in the 6th B.C. It was danced by children, adolescents and men with the accompaniment of music. The dance was splendid and impressive and had a martial character. Pyrrihios is danced today by the Greek inhabitants of the Black Sea region of Turkey.

"EYDOYSIN"
A ceremonial musical journey from the Black sea all the way to Crete and Cyprus which unravels the sounds of the Lyre accompanying Ancient Greek Lyric Poetry as well as the songs of the old Byzantine frontiers (“Akritique”).
as a musical journey it expresses the endless battle between light and darkness from inside of fables and is based on the delivery and the ancient tragedy
(poetry – music - dance)
The show consists of 3 parts
a) Ionian b) Land of the Pontos (Black Sea) c) Aegean Sea

a) Begins with the Orphic Hymn dedicated to the God Apollo and it continues with the ancient lyric poetry of Alkeos, Alkman, Sapfo, Aristotle and Pindar.
b) It begins with a song from “Pontos” dedicated to the Sun and it ends with one of the most erotic dances on earth “Pyrichios”.
c) It begins with Euripides’s “Medea” referring to the adventures of the Argonauts in the Black Sea and it ends with “Eudousin” by Alkman.

EYDOYSIN

1. a) ONAX PYTHONOS
O! Great protector of the Pythia, far shooting archer, prophet
your virtue I praise .
and you grant me a name glorified and blessed me with a voice that speaks the truth, as that I would sing to the people, that are scattered to the far corners of the earth, a magical song
at the command of the Muses, and with plectrum well made.
Because now, I sing a friendly song for you, that have as your work the playing of the lyre.

b) PSYHI MOY Instrumental
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Eirini bakalopoulou - Harp
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion

2. a) AGELIKOS Instrumental

b) EN PONTO O KRIIS
En Pontos Sodamos In the Pontos Sea, Sodamos from Krete was lost, he who loved the sea and the nets. The best fisherman of all. But the sea does not distinguish the fishermen from the others.
Remember, remember when I told you of the sacred lyrics that youth is the most beautiful youth quickly passes, not even the fastest bird in the sky can surpass youth. And now look that all of your flowers have been scattered to the earth. THIMOKLIS
Nymphs Anigriades, ambrosias girls of river that with your legs like roses always return to the depths of the sea.

EYTOLMIOS O SHOLASTIKOS

Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Eirini bakalopoulou - Harp
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards

POET OF UNKNOWN ELEMENTS
3. a)AYLOS DADIMMELIS
The sweet tones of the harp have blended with the Lyre and with the sounds of cymbals. The girls chanted with clean voice a holy member, and the admirable sound touched upon the ethers. Smyrna, kassia and incense were mixed. The more mature women drew all together cries of joy, and the men started a song strongly, a song being full of desire calling the sacred singer of the long bow, the sovereign of the Lyre and they sang of Hektor and Andromachi as gods. SAPFO
b)MYRTATE
and mirtal and violets and golden flowers and myra and tyre and
laurels glossy when, in all of its glory dawn ends sleep
and wakes up the nightingales, the moon sparkled fully SAPFO
IVIKOS
SAPFO
c) PYRRIHIOS DANSE - INSTRUMENTAL
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Eirini bakalopoulou - Harp
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards

4. a) IONIKOS Instrumental

b) ANEMON VLIHRON
The light winds that blow the storms do not disturb, and Poseidon still rages the salty Pontos(sea). SAPFO

c) DITHIRAMVOS
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Eirini bakalopoulou - Harp
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards
5.
a) PENESTATI
The famous Greeks that led a simple life Aristidis Lysimachou and Fokion Fokou and Epameinondas Polymnidos and Pelopidas Thibaios and Lamachos the Athenian and Sokratis Sofroniskou and Efialtis Sofonidou and many others.
AILIANOS

b) EYDEMONIA - INSTRUMENTAL
c) ATHAMADIDOS ELLAS ZIGON

d) IONIAN HYMN
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Xanthoula Dakovano – Vocals
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Dimitris Vasiliadis – Kanun
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards
6.
a) ARETA POLYMOHTHE
Virtue, of much labour for the mortals of the generation, with their goal of life the most beautiful being you,
to die for you is a death most enviable in Greece and its labours suffered hard.
ARISTOTELIS
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Xanthoula Dakovano – Vocals
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards

7. MA TIN PANAIAN LEGO - FOLKLORE TRADITIONAL of the Black Sea
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Eirini Kritharidou - Vocals
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards

8. ODIPORIKO Instrumental
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Eirini bakalopoulou - Harp
Sigrid Haselmann - Harp
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards

9. AMORIANE MOY AGERA
sing, sing on the rocks at the mountains, Like the dream that goes around at the sea, at the sea
for you I await do not be late, at the edge of the sea, wind of Amorgos at the edge of the sea
your destiny is to be here and you can not deny it, you can not
for you I await do not be late, at the edge of the sea
wind of Amorgos at the edge of the sea

Lyrics from Pantelis Pavlidis
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards

10. a) ASTERES
The stars around the beautiful moon hide their brilliant faces, when she is seen fully above the earth
b) DEXEME Accept me so that I can sing my love, I beseech you, accept me, I beseech you.

Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards

11. a) ITH OFEL ARGOYS
It would have been better that the winged ship the Argos had never passed the Sympligades stones for Kolchidos. Not even the forest of Pilion on the mountain to have fallen from axes striking pine and not even the oars rowing in the hands of those heroes that for favour to Pelias in foreign lands were they searching for the Golden Fleece. Because then he would not have Medea, my lady, in the castles of high Iolkos, fallen in love and having her heart deeply wounded by Iasonas.
MEDEA FROM EURIPIDIS LINES 1-7
When love is the same for both then you are God, yet when one side does not have love then you are nothing at all.
RUFINOS FROM IONIA 2ND CENTURY B.C.


b) AIGEO EYLOGIMENO
Blessed Aegean
the children on the Sandy beach were heard up to the stars,
in the sea of the Aegean fall the golden rays of the sun
And all the girls begin to move in the brightness singing and wearing flowers.
the song of love.
Blessed Aegean
Lyrics from Pantelis Pavlidis
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Haris Porphiridis - Laoute
Maria Fotiou - Vocals
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Dimitris Vasiliadis – Kanun


12. AGIDO
There is revenge from the gods. Blissful is the one that passes his day without a teardrop. I however sing the glory of victory. I see her as the sun that Agido calls him to show for our witness. Neither shall I sing to her neither shall I fight her with in no way am I allowed by the famous leader of dance. Because she herself seems too stand so much above from all that is distinguished, as the prized horse of the races as compared to the herds, strong with hoofs that echo, taken out of the winged dream.
ALKMAN
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Thimios Atzakas - Laoute

13. EYDOYSIN
Sleeping are the tops and gorges of mountains, the tall clearings and ravines, the forest and all the reptiles that are nourished by the black earth and the wild beasts of mountain and the bees and the creatures in the depths of the light blue sea, sleeping also all the birds with… long wings.
Pantelis Pavlidis - Lyre, Vocals
Lena Susanne Norin - Vocals
Xanthoula Dakovano – Vocals
Sigrid Haselmann - Harp
Kleoniki Pavlidou - Vocals
Loukas Metaxas – Percussion
Tilemehos Mousas - Guitar
Nikos Liberakis - Keyboards

BIOGRAPHIES:
Lyrical Poets from which segments of their poetry were set to music for the musical work“SOUNDS OF THE BLACK SEA AND THE AEGEAN”
Sapfo
The Greek lyric poetess (Aeolian dialect Psapfa) (~ 630 - 570 B.C.), lived in Lesvos and there are only a few things known about her life. She was a contemporary of Alkaios and Pittakos.
Sapfo is considered with her poetry, that was written in the Aeolian dialect, as the more important lyric poetess of antiquity. Plato names her the tenth muse. Her poetry vibrates with spontaneity and intense feelings. Many of her lyrics show intense eroticism and lyricism.

Alkaios
Alkaios was an ancient poet that was born in Mitilini about 620 B.C. and lived the same era with Sapfo. His life coincided with the appearance and predominance of tyranny. He had an active role in politics.
Alkaios had also influenced the later poets. Theokritos in his “Romance” imitates him, as well as the Latin poet Horace, while in Athens, in the peak of the 5th century B.C., his conferences songs were sung. Including the other known metres that he used - Sapfic, iambic, tetrameter, Asklipiadeio major- devised also the Alkaiki lyrics.:

Alkman
According to ancient testimonies, he was of Greek Ionian origin and was born in Sardis of Lydia. From there he went to Sparta. According to the of dictionary of Souda he was Lakedaimonios, having been born in Messoa and his best years were during the 27th Olympic Games (672 - 668 B.C.).
Alexandrian philosophers separated his work into six books, which contained anthems, paeans and research. Alkman was the one that shaped choric poetry to a particular literary type in Sparta. He did not only compose the text of his poems, but also determined the music and the dancing and special movements. From the work of Alkman certain extracts have been saved. His poetic reason combines the Ionian charm with Dorian gravity. It alludes to the love and the charms of life and describes the beauty of nature with a simple style.

Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.)
was from Ancient Stageira of Chalkidiki (the current name of the region is Liotopi, half a kilometre from the southernly Olympiada. His father was Nikomachos who was the doctor of the king of Macedonia Amynta III, whose father was Philippos.
Aristotle had studied in the Academy of Plato for 20 years (367 - 347), up to the year that his schoolteacher died. In the environment of the Academy he left all amazed as well as his schoolteacher, with his intelligence and diligence.
Virtue, when dominating the passions and the impulses, regulates them, playing the role of metre between the two extremities, that is to say in the exaggeration and the lack of.
Virtue is the total of body (strength, health, beauty) and of chance (wealth, polite origin etc). In accordance with them, “happy is the one that lives on the path of virtue.”

IVIKOS
Ibykos was an ancient Greek lyric poet from Rigio of Great Ellada (Greece.) His highpoint is placed somewhere in the mid 6th century B.C., in the era of the tyrant Samos Polykratis, in whose palace he had lived many years.
His creative work
Seven poetic books were attributed to Ibykos, of which only a few extracts have been rescued. To this day barely 40 verses of his have been found. Of his poems the erotic are considered to be the more important, for their originality and their thermal sentiment. The type of religious hymn, that Stisichoros had converted to heroic, was again altered by Ibykos towards the best, in order that from him the laudation is born, that is to say a hymn clearly anthropocentric.

Pindar
Pindar is not only the pinnacle of choric poetry, but is also one from the greatest poets of ancient Greece. His poetry is deeply religious, and has something commanding and splendid.
Pindar wrote poems in the all types of lyric poetry, anthems, paeans, dithyramvous, epinikia, laudation and lamentations, praising gods, heroes and persons.
The poetry of Pindar is musical, harmonious and bright. It is inspired by clearly Dorian perceptions. It has ideas aristocratic and wants the leaders to be distant from the population. The person should be virtuous and should seek virtue

Euripidis
Euripidis (480 B.C. - 406 B.C.), was a tragic poet and one of the three great teachers of Attic drama in the ancient Greek theatre. Coming from Flya, municipality of Kekropias. He is said to have been born in Salamine on the day of the naval battle when Aischylos fought as the first man and Sophocles was the adolescent that drew the dance on the trophy epinikion.
Euripidis except epinikioy in honour of Alkibiades that won in the chariot race and a elegy in honour of those Athenians killed in battle in Syracuses he had written poems, 92 dramas or 23 tetralogies but in the years of his biographers there were only saved 78 from which 8 were satirical. (On the back side of a bust at the Louvre Museum there are written in alphabetical order 37 dramas up to Orestes). Today there are known 81 titles of work of which have been rescued a “complete” 19 excluding 1 satire - Melissa Publishing Ltd