Peny Papakonstantinou

Born and raised in Athens she is a singer,musician and songwriter.From an early age she started taking classical guitar and theory of music lessons while growing up she attended classical song and mandolin lessons.

Her first contact with Greek traditional music came at the age of 19 through K.A.L.M.E (Centre for Aegean Folklore and Musicological Research) where she was a member of the Aegean choir under the artistic direction of Theofanis Soulakelis.

She collaborated with leading musicians of Greek traditional music in different music productions where she met her teachers, Irini Derebei (traditional song) and Karolos Kouklakis (Constantinople lute).

She had the great opportunity to participate in the project “Medimuses” organized by the cultural organization “En Hordais” where she attended singing lessons with the great performer from Turkey, Melihat Gulses. She has been a member of the music groups “Alos Apoixoi”, “Santourovioli express” under the direction of the violinist Kyriakos Gouventas, and “Semeli Orchestra” under the direction of Andreas Tsekouras. Today she is member of  “Smyrna orchestra”. As a musician she is playing Constantinople lute,percussion and flutes.

She has collaborated with artists of Greek and world music such as  Marta Sebestyen,Nikos Xydakis,Haig Yazdjian,Manos Pyrovolakis,Manos Achalinotopoulos, Lizeta Kalimeri, Maria Soultatou,Kaiti Koullia,Zacharias Karounis  etc. She has also participated as a performer at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Athens 2004, with Domna Samiou.

In 2011, along with folk music, willing to try new things and experiment with different types of music, she has released her first solo album titled “Feggari stin taratsa” by Polytropon record company. Haris Tsekoura has written the lyrics and music.

In may 2012, she wrote the music and performed the soundtrack titled “Ap’ to telos stin arxi” , for the short film “Dissolve”, directed by Lampros Georgopoulos.

In November 2012 she released her second album titled “O notias ton ligon” produced by her. Kallirroe Myriagkou and Saveria Margiola participate in it. Haris Tsekoura,Lizeta Kalimeri,Maria Kanavaki,Katerina Dima and herself have written the lyrics and music.

Her third album titled «Folk this way» that includes fusion cover versions of greek traditional songs, has been released in February 2014 by the record company Final Touch of Miltos Karatzas.

In February 2015 the album titled “Mila mou san paramythi” in which she wrote the music and made the orchestrations has been released with lyrics of Sofia M.Karachaliou. Seven musical stories about the diversity of love. Sofia Kourtidou,Saveria Margiola,Aggeliki Toumpanaki,Kallirroe Myriagkou,Fenia Christou,Smyrna orchestra and herself perform the songs of the album.