Epilekto Epirus Ensemble – Vasilis Kostas
Epirus

Featuring Kostas Tzimas, Antonis Kyritsis, Petros Chalkias

[…] they kneel and plead with the clarinet to play into their ears.
A sweet sorrow. The soul is nourished by sound.
Their steps are long-drawn, slow, and heavy with grief.
There, dance has no figures, only footfalls upon the earth […]

Music from Epirus, Hellenic Parliament Foundation

The tribute “Epirus” unfolds as a musical encounter of memory and continuity, dedicated to the deep-rooted tradition of Epirote music and its unbroken passage through time. At the heart of the performance lies the glorious legacy of the late Petroloukas Chalkias, a towering presence for the way in which the music of Epirus is transmitted, transformed, and renewed across generations.

Under the artistic direction of the laouto player, lecturer at Hellenic College Holy Cross in the United States, and Grammy-nominated musician Vasilis Kostas – whose decade-long apprenticeship and close collaboration with Petroloukas Chalkias shaped a rare and invaluable core of knowledge and aesthetic insight – this material gains new life today through the Epilekto Epirus Ensemble, the principal orchestra of the production. Based in Ioannina, this twenty-member collective of young musicians from across Greece brings to the stage a vivid dialogue between the authentic performance of traditional melodies and novel approaches to orchestration. In doing so, it preserves the distinct idiom of Epirote music while offering a contemporary artistic perspective on the region’s perennial musical heritage.

Joining the performance as guests are Kostas Tzimas (vocals), Antonis Kyritsis (vocals), and Petros Chalkias (clarinet) – figures firmly rooted in the grand Epirote tradition, who appear in selected pieces, thereby reinforcing through their presence the intergenerational character of the tribute.

The coexistence of musicians from different generations initiates a space where memory is experienced as something immediate and lived, rather than as mere representation. The concert, then, approaches Epirote music as a breathing, malleable artistic language – one that still pushes through the deep foliage of time, evolving through collective exercise and personal expression.

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The Epilekto Epirus Ensemble operates under the auspices and with the support of the Holy Metropolis of Ioannina and the charitable organisation “Apostoli” of the Holy Archdiocese of Athens.