Countless musicians and other artists worldwide have released creative virtual content over the past few weeks of COVID-19 lockdown. And one group from the Berklee College of Music just added to the list.
In their first-ever virtual collaboration, nearly a dozen musicians from The Berklee Greek Ensemble performed their own rendition of a popular song from the Rebetiko genre.
“[We are] very proud and happy to share this video that The Berklee Greek Ensemble of Spring Semester 2020 just put together,” the group wrote on its Facebook page. “[The ensemble is] playing ‘Mandalio,’ a song from the Rebetiko tradition.”
Rebetiko can be most briefly described as a popular musical tradition which originated from the Greek urban lower and working-class populations in the early 20th century. Because of these origins, rebetiko is sometimes casually referred to as “Greek blues.”
The song, ‘Mandalio kai Mandalena,’ has seen versions released by various Greek singers including Glykeria and Haris Alexiou, among others.
About The Berklee Greek Ensemble
In this Boston-based ensemble, students learn and perform traditional Greek music from all of the regions of Greece: The islands (including Crete), mainland (Thrace, Macedonia, Epiros, Thessaly and Peloponnesus) and the country of Cyprus. Students learn music from Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey, once inhabited by more than 1 million Greeks for thousands of years. The group gives one performance at Berklee per semester as well as others in the greater Boston area.
The list of performing musicians includes: Eleni Moniodi, vocals; Konstantinos Revelas, vocals and bouzouki; Jia Wei Chen, piano; Rebecca McBride, violin; Rebecca MacInnes, violin; Cecelia Cook, viola; Stefanos Athinaios, doumberleki; Ethan Boras, frame drum; Konstantinos Alvanos, guitar; Beth Bahia Cohen, violin and Tommy Kavounidis, video editing and tzoura.
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