Loukas Metaxas

Percussion
He was born in Kalamata, grew up in Piraeus and lives in Thessaloniki since 1995. He studied piano, chorus conduction (a capella) and harmony with Kostas Klavas, double bass with Yiannis Sereleas and Takis Kapoyiannis, contemporary bass with Alexandros Vassilatos, classic harmony, practical teaching of theory/harmony of music, as well as music history and morphology at various conservatories of Athens, while at the same time he took private music arranging courses and lessons in counterpoint and fugue with Amarantos Amarantidis, as well as seminars in music creation with Nikiforos Rotas.
Meeting Ross Daly and Christos Tsiamoulis in 1989 led him to decide to study the lauta. In Thessaloniki he also studied Byzantine music with Panagiotis Neochoritis, theory of makam (Turkish classical music) with Markos Skoulios and Byzantine music and traditional song with Panagiotis Drakopoulos.
He attended seminars and master classes of bass, contemporary rhythmology, Latin America percussions, as well as traditional and classical Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean percussions next to Thomas Martin, Marivaldo Paim, Fahrettin Yarkin, Misirli Ahmet, Kostas Anastassiadis, Zohar Fresco and Levent Yildirim. Since 2002 he regularly meets Izzet Kizil in Istanbul to exchange ideas and pursuit new percussion techniques.
He has worked, mainly playing percussions and contrabass, tambouras or lauta, with various dance groups and artists, such as Ross Daly, Christos Tsiamoulis, Doitsidis family, Yiannis Striggos, Xilouris brothes, Kudsi Ergüner, Sol Hasan, Turksan Yordal, Derya, Izzet Kizil, Vassilis Vetsos, Thanassis Serkos, Christos Zotos, Kyriakos Petras, Nikos Tzanis-Ginnerup, Elias Papadopoulos, Katerina Papadopoulou, Alekos Zoras, Yiannis Saoulis, Kostas Bravakis and others, and with singers as Domna Samiou, Kariofillis Doitsidis, Chronis Aidonidis, Xanthippi Karathanassi, Yorgos Xanthoulis, Voula Savvidi, Stavrakakis, Psarantonis, Solon Lekas, David Saltiel, Mara Aranda, Katia Papadopoulou, Drossos Koutsokostas, Sophia Emfietzi, Thomas Korovinis, Panos Drakopoulos, Panagiotis and Sophia Neohoritou, Vaggelis Daskaloudis, Maria Thoidou and others.
He has also appeared in Kostas Ferris Rebetiko and in National Theatre of Northern Greece performance Loxandra. He has worked with many musical ensembles as co-founder, orchestra member or session musician, such as: «Loxandra», “Nefes”, «En Hordais», «Balarom Trio», «Baildsa Band», «Woven Hand», «Aman Aman», «Idiomelo», «Karsi», «Musicians Without Borders», «Echopragmateftades», «Rozonarides», «Kirmizi Gül», «Şikâyet», «B-Movies, «Xarq Al - Andalus, «Ahora Así». He has participated in musical events, music and dance festivals, shadow theatres, literature soirees, music documentaries, concerts, but also in marriages all over Greece, as well as abroad.
Since 1998 he gives lessons of traditional percussions and teaches at many conservatories and music schools. Since 2008 he teaches at the music school «En Hordais» and during summers he gives seminars at the “Music Village” of Pelion. He has also given seminars in Spain and Poland.
He has participated in more than 30 discs as a musician, arranger and production manager. In 2009 he founded the independent production company “POLIPHONON”.

Participations - Performances - Collaborations

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