Artists
The four members of the Osmosis Saxophone Quartet from Greece and Cyprus: Antonis Fotiadis, Christos Zenios, Theofilos Sotiriadis and Yiannis Miralis, will teach and guide all the participants who will be separated in groups according to their skill level.
Charis Kapetanakis, special guest of this year's Saxophone Summer Academy, will introduce participants to the basic skills of jazz improvisation through a simple experiential music workshop. For this workshop no knowledge in jazz music theory is required.
Constantinos Gkaripis will be in charged of the piano accompaniment through rehearsals and concerts.
Special guest, lecturer of the jazz workshop
Charis Kapetanakis
Charis Kapetanakis was born and grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece, where he studied saxophone and music theory/harmony. More specifically, he holds a bachelor degree in music from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a bachelor degree in jazz saxophone from Ionian University. He has been also a scolarship winner of Berklee School of Music (5000$, Athens, 1995).
From the early 1990 he is an active member of the jazz, funk and latin music scene participating in numerous concerts across Greece and in various European cities as a band leader and band member ( Hard Groove Quartet, Nasa Funk, Aroma Caribe, Jazz Frequency Quintet) and as a session musician in different kind of projects. He has collaborated with many artists from Greece and around the world such as Sheila Jordan, Chico Freeman, Roberto Pla, Williams Cumerbache, Herman Olivera, Ray Vega, Milcho Levief as a performer and as a recording artist. He has also performed as an opening act for Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri etc.
Since 2000 he works as a saxophone educator and music theory/harmony teacher at various music schools and conservatories. Moreover, he has composed music for several short movie film.
He has two personal albums as a bandleader (Charis Kapetanakis quartet, Blue Roads, Nightwalkers AVJ productions) and several albums as a band member of Hard Groove Quartet, Nasa Funk, Aroma Caribe latin orchestra, the Overtones.
Pianist
Constantinos Gkaripis
Konstantinos Garipis is a pianist, conductor, composer and music theorist.
He studied piano, music theory and composition in Thessaloniki (Municipal Conservatory of Thessaloniki and Department of Music Science and Art, University of Macedonia respectively) and did his master's degree in Stuttgart, Germany (Higher Academy of Music and Performing Arts), with a scholarship from the association “Freunde der Musik” and the DAAD, as a music theorist with a focus on orchestration and conducting orchestral ensembles.
He has worked for many years as a tutor, teacher, vocal coach and performer both in the field of classical and modern music and has performed in individual recitals and concerts as a pianist, composer and conductor, in prestigious music halls ( Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Vafopouleio Cultural Center etc.) performing his music and others composers’ works, with the last example being the work Missa di Requiem, Pro Liberatione Hominis, a composition for soloists, choir and orchestra in collaboration with the composer Angeliki Balogianni, which he orchestrated it and conducted it.
He has been actively involved in the theater, composing music for 7 theater performances in Greece and Germany (Theatrical Workshop "Metamorfosis", Theatrical Workshop of the municipality of Kalamaria, Theatergruppe der Forum der Kulturen Stuttgart, Theatrical Group "The Path" of the municipality of Thermi), among which and the original musical "Kafenion i Hellas" written and directed by the most important Greek actor, director and teacher, Christos Papastergiou, of whom he was a close collaborator.
After his return from Germany, he worked as an assistant conductor in the "Lyric Theater Company" with the acclaimed lyric artists Filippos Modinos and Kassandra Dimopoulou. There he conducts and works as an assistant conductor in a number of famous works of the international operatic repertoire (among others Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Idomeneo, Re di Creta, L'incoronazione di Poppea under his own direction and Tosca, Il Tabaro, Suor Angelica as assistant conductor).
His oeuvre includes, among others, choral works, orchestral compositions, works for solo piano and solo compositions for other instruments, chamber music, poetry set to music and music for the theater, while in the last year he has been actively involved in composition and contribution to the enrichment of the repertoire for rare and ancient instruments such as the ancient Greek lyre, for which he composed a large series of works. His work has been the subject of a project by students of the Department of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in a corresponding course on young Greek composers.
