ANTONIS LADOPOULOS Jazz Quartet
«Little Flowers» … of Jazz
Antonis Ladopoulos and his jazz quartet will appear live at Megaro Gyzi Festival 2008 on Friday August 22. They are going to play Ladopoulos compositions and well-known jazz standards.
Antonis Ladopoulos, saxophone
Sami Amiris, piano
Pericles Trivolis, bass
Yannis Stavropoulos, drums
Antonis Ladopoulos, saxophone
Antonis Ladopoulos was born in Athens Greece. In 1990, he earned a Bachelors Degree in Jazz Studies and Performance from William Paterson University of New Jersey, after attending its highly accredited Jazz Studies Program led by Jazz legend Rufus Reid. Upon the completion of his studies he received a Graduate Assistantship along with a full scholarship from Eastern Illinois University.
Moving to Illinois, he spent two years studying and working as a teaching assistant in the Jazz Program, led by Alan Horney and Henry Butler. During that time, he performed on various occasions as a member of the Henry Butler Quartet. In 1991 he earned an exceptional performance award at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival. He graduated in 1992 with a Master of Arts Degree and moved back to Greece.
Since then, he has been leading his own groups and teaching the Jazz idiom in the greater Athens area. He has performed all over Greece, both with his own group and as a featured soloist. His personal discography includes 4 albums. He has appeared in numerous commercial recordings with various pop artists, as well as a soloist with the National Radio Orchestra. His quartet was featured in the celebrational events of the 2004 Olympic Games.
Antonis Ladopoulos is highly acclaimed as an educator. Today, some of his former students are among the top music professionals in Greece. He is the co-founder of Muse.gr music institute & record label and the creator and co-director of Muse Festival one of the most prestigious yearly Jazz festivals currently taking place in Greece.
Sami Amiris, piano
Sami – Vassilis Amiris (or Sami, as everybody calls him), was born and raised in Thessaloniki. His first encounter with music was in a young age, with Mr. Panagiotis Moralis. Later, he attended «Anatolia College» high school in Thessaloniki, where he held a full scholarship during all years of study. Concurrently, he continued to study music with Mrs Matthaiou.
He studied mathematics in the University of Crete, and is currently attending graduate school in Athens. His interests include the foundations of mathematics, algorithms, complexity and algorithmic graph theory. Concurrently, he studied piano with Prof. Dimitri Toufexis, an internationally acclaimed pianist and conductor, and Julliard Alumnus and former instructor. He has taken part in a number of concerts and seminars, either as an active member or as audience. He has taken lessons in composition with Prof. Theodore Antoniou, Dr. Athanasios Zervas, and in jazz piano with the internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Mal Waldron.
He was the main pianist of the City of Athens Big Band, Small Combo and Contemporary Music Ensemble, all conducted by Dr. Zervas. He has also taken part in the «Improelectronics» orchestra, which specialized in contemporary experimental electronic music, as well as the Athens Jazz Orchestra, both also conducted by Dr Zervas. He has appeared in very important music halls, like the Athens Concert Hall, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, «Phillipos Nakas» Concert Hall, «Athena» Concert Hall in the Art Conservatory of Athens, etc.
He has appeared on stage with most of the important jazz artists of the Athens scene, as well as important artists of the international music scene, like Rex Richardson and Dom Famularo. During the 1st Greek Drum Camp, in which he took part, he shared the stage with Dom Famularo, Thomas Lang and Jeff Bowden.
He has appeared in quite a few groups of all sizes and musical directions, either as a sideman, as in the Antonis Ladopoulos Quartet, the Yiotis Kiourtsoglou Quartet, etc., but also as a co-leader, as in Energy, a duet with drummer-extraordinaire Zach Pinakoulakis, Cover Charge Trio with Zach Pinakoulakis and Odysseas Konstantinopoulos on bass, etc. He has appeared in a seminar-concert with Yiotis Kiourtsoglou and Zach Pinakoulakis, focusing on the contemporary jazz and fusion scene. He has also taken part in Y. Kiourtsoglou’s debut personal recording, «Hapopsis».
Today, he continues his 10-year-long association with Zach Pinakoulakis. He is also a founding member of «Nucleus», along with Yannis Stavropoulos on drums and Perikles Trivolis on bass. Apart from these, he also collaborates with some of the most important musicians in the Athens scene.
In the area of teaching, he has quite a few success stories. People that have studied with him are currently studying or have graduated, either as undergraduate or graduate students, from some of the leading universities both inside and outside Greece (U.S., U.K., the Netherlands, etc.), either in the field of jazz or contemporary music composition.
He believes in the active incorporation of the mathematical thought process in the organisation of the materials of music, be it rhythm or tone material. He has worked extensively on the organisation of the tone material in general, atonal music in particular, as well as rhythm organisation of music, polyrhythms and rhythmic groupings.
Currently, he lives and works in Athens. He teaches in the «Muse» music school. He is married and is blessed with three children.
nnis Stavropoulos, drums
He was born in Athens. He studied at Berklee College, Boston, on full scolarship. He has played and recorded with such diverse artists as pianists Chris Jacob, Aydin Essen, Mike «Jonesy» Jones, saxophonists Jim Odgren, Andy Sheppard, bassists Hector Oliveira, Xavier Padilla, Jack Kulp,Yotis Kiourktsoglou and George Fakanas.
He is an active composer/arranger. His «Hybrids» suite for two pianos was performed, on two different occasions, at the Moscow conservatory by pianists N. Grossas and P. Yannakakis.
He is currently Artistic Director of Modern Music school (Athens Branch) and is performing with the jazz trio NUKLEUS involving pianist Sami Amiris and bassist Pericles Trivolis.
Pericles Trivolis, bass
Pericles Trivolis, born in Athens in 1975, started his music studies at the Conservatory Philippos Nakas with music theory, harmony and electric bass.
1992-2001: he studies jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he also accomplishes studies in acoustic bass.
From 2003 he has been working in Athens as professional musician and is cooperating with many outstanding artists, Greeks and foreigners as well, in jazz.
