Stelios’s CV

Music composer and instrument maker, Stelios Petrakis was introduced to the art of the lyre at a young age. He had many influential teachers in seminars and regular courses masters of Eastern music, such as Ross Daly, Talip Ozkan, Dr. L. Subramaniam and many others. He has collaborated extensively in concerts and recordings with important musicians of the international scene (Ross Daly, Chemiranis, Efren Lopez, etc.), with our Traditional musicians of music (Giorgis Xylouris, Vassilis Stavrakakis) with composers (Christos Leontis, Stamatis Spanoudakis, Stephanie Economou, Joseph Shirley) as well as with other musicians in recordings for films, discography and concerts. Today he is one of the main exponents and innovators of the traditional music, listing nine personal records and many international accolades.

With his quartet “Stelios Petrakis quartet” he travels Cretan music to the ends of the world, from India and Malaysia to Theater de La Ville in Paris and Carnegie Hall in New York, and almost everywhere in between, it opens it up to ever-larger audiences. Top moments in his musical career is climbing to the top #1 for the CD “Spondi” in the World Music Charts Europe (July 2022), the announcement of the cd “L’ Art de la Lyra” as the top of the year 2016 in Radio France , as well as his sold out performances at the Theater de la Ville (Paris) and the
Carnegie hall (New York).

On cinema, he recently participated extensively in the recordings of the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding vol. 3” by Nia Vardalos with music by Stephanie Economou, in the recordings of the movie “Killer Heat” of Philippe Lacôte with music by Joseph Shirley, while the documentary “Thalatta” by Aristotle of the University of Thessaloniki, which concerns overfishing in the Aegean, has been invested exclusively with his own music.

As an instrument maker he has his opwn workshop in Kato Gouves Village in Crete, making lyres, lutes, saz and other stringed musical instruments. His own creations are exhibited in museums musical instruments around the world, such as in the “City of Music” in Paris, in Japan, France, Poland and Greece. Famous musicians from all over the world moving their own instruments, such as Ross Daly, Efren Lopez, Kelly Thoma, Les Claypool, Sean Lennon, Giorgis Xylouris.

He is a graduate of the Law Department of the Law School of the University of Athens, and he speaks English, French and Turkish.