WOMAD

Matthaios Tsahourides

From Greece

Matthaios Tsahourides was born in Veria (Greece). At the age of 9, he took up the Pontic Lyra (a bottle-shaped stringed musical instrument of the Greeks of Pontos – South Black Sea coast), which is by far the instrument that expresses his deeply felt devotion and respect for the musical tradition he loves and serves. Matthaios did not choose to serve this particular genre of Greek traditional music; he was chosen by the rich tradition he was born into and he so genuinely represents.His original temperament and his amazing dexterity in playing the traditional instruments have been widely praised, culminating to his winning the 1ST Prize in a Pan-Hellenic Music Competition, awarded by the Greek Ministry of Education at the Athens Concert Hall, in 1996. In 1997 he moves to London, in order to continue his music studies.By the year 2001, Matthaios had successfully completed his undergraduate studies in music and his Masters Degree in Ethnomusicology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is currently a PhD student in Performance Practice at Goldsmiths College Music Department, under the supervision of Professor John Baily. Matthaios has shown a great interest in the string family of the musical instruments; he plays instruments such as the violin, laghouto (Greek lute), oud (Arab lute), the Greek bouzouki, guitar, the Iranian kamancheh, the Afghan rubab and the Afghan ghichak.In January 2005, Matthaios won the Arts Foundation Fellowship Award 2005 of Britain, as the best UK based instrumentalist – working in a non-western musical tradition. He has also performed the Pontic Lyra at WOMAD music Festival in Reading (England 2001), WOMEX music Festival in Rotterdam (Holland 2001), Roskilder Rock festival (Denmark 2002), in Teatro Massimo, Palermo Opera House (Italy 2002), at Royal Albert Hall (in a Charity Concert for the children of Afghanistan, London 2002), at the Purcell Room in the Southbank Arts Centre (London), for BBC Radio 3 live from Bristol at the programme World Roots with Lucy Duran, a programme series dedicated to the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, as well as many other BBC radio programmes. In August 2004, he performs the main theme of the BBC for the Olympic Games of Athens with the opera band Amici and Prague Symphony Orchestra. He has also collaborated with Ostad Ardeshir Kamkar on the Iranian kamancheh in Tehran last August. Having participated in many music concerts, Matthaios has managed to put forward a personal statement over the musical tradition he embraces and to which he has devoted his life. ---------