The most important performer and researcher of Greek traditional music
Domna Samiou is the most important performer and researcher of Greek traditional music, died Saturday night, after recent health problems. He dedicated and devoted himself to the propagation of traditional music and traditional song, since she actually served it since she was 13 years old. He will be buried on Tuesday, at 3 afternoon, from the cemetery of Nea Smyrni.
But let's see how Domna Samiou herself, she describes this relationship she had with music on her website : “My ear to me ever since, like a kid I was, he got all the sounds and musics. My father sang very well, the man was not a singer, but he chanted and sang very well too. I remember when he would come home from work he would take me on his knees and cuddle me and say, let's say, Hurry, where are you going, baby?, in the cheese maker, and we didn't find any cheese, we saw the shepherd… or other miscellaneous, let's say, The child wants to dance, the violins are not here, and whoever goes to bring them, a thaler in hand…
The church of Agios Nikolaos was also nearby and every Sunday I went with my father and attended the service, of course not out of religiousness but because I liked this music, it was like going to a concert, let's say. Little by little I had learned the whole operation by heart, the Holy Week services, the Greetings, I remember that I had also learned "Aspile, undefiled..”, which they say at the end of the Greetings, where a little child is standing in front of Christ and another in front of the Virgin Mary, I recited this whole piece by heart".
Curriculum vitae
Domna Samiou was born on 12 October 1928 in Kaisariani, Athens.
Her parents were Asia Minor refugees from Baydiri, village of Smyrna region. Her mother came to Greece in 1922, her father, captured soldier, a little later, with the Exchange. In the environment of Kaisarianni, she had her first musical hearings, from which her love for traditional music began..
At the age 13 years old, Domna Samiou has her first teaching contact with Byzantine and folk music, but also with the logic of field research, apprenticed under Simon Karas, in the "Association for the Promotion of National Music", while at the same time attending the night high school.
As a member of the choir of Simon Karas, she began her relationship with the National Radio Foundation/E.I.R. where later, the 1954, is hired at the Department of National Music. From this position he knows the most important popular musicians, who at that time of internal migration flocked to Athens from all regions of Greece, and whom TEM records for its broadcasts.
At the same time, he edits music for record releases, theatrical shows, motion pictures. The 1963 begins her trips to the countryside for field recordings and gathering of musical material for her personal archive with her own equipment.
The 1971 resigns from the Radio. In the same year, he accepted the invitation of Dionysos Savvopoulos and appeared for the first time in the youth club Rodeo, giving a great turn since then to the relationship of young people with traditional music.
These important appearances are followed by participation in the Bach Festival in London, organized by Lila Lalanti. The brilliant artistic career of Domna Samiou has begun triumphantly. "The shame they had about the folk song is over", as she states in an interview herself.
The 1974 co-operation with Columbia and consecutive LP releases begin. The 1976-77 with directors Fotos Lambrinos and Andreas Thomopoulos, they shoot twenty episodes in the Greek countryside for the ERT show "Musical Journey".
The 1981 the Municipal Music Artistic Association is founded – Domna Samiou with the aim of saving and promoting traditional music and mainly publishing records and organizing events with strict scientific and quality standards, away from the demands of commercial companies.
Her work now goes beyond the Greek borders. Her records are published in France and Sweden. For about forty years he has been performing a series of concerts from Australia to South America that not only move the Greeks of the Diaspora but also reveal to foreigners a quality "Greek music without bouzouki", as written in some review of her concert in Sweden.
Inside Greece, her appearances at concerts of all kinds and for every occasion are countless, as well as the honorary invitations and tributes, such as e.g. the anniversary show for the 70 her years: "Domna Samiou at the Concert Hall: the known and unknown Domna", in October 1998.
For her various activities she collaborates with the most renowned Greek and foreign musicians, musicologists, folklorists, ethnomusicologists but also teaches, introduces and highlights emerging young artists.
From the 1994 gives folk song lessons for adults at the Museum of Greek Folk Instruments in Athens. Her initiatives are also numerous and her practical and selfless offer regarding the improvement of children's music education in primary education, pedagogically primary and imperative request according to her.
Acclaimed and loved for her contribution and presence, she saw her work recognized multiple times and was honored with many awards, culminating in the awarding of a medal by the President of the Republic K. Stefanopoulos 2005.
Source : tovima.gr
