Sokratis Sinopoulos (kemençe and lavta)

Born in Athens, Greece in 1974, Sinopoulos studied classical guitar with B. Gratsounas, and theory of western music with M. Adami, while taking lessons in Byzantine music and demotic song. In 1988 he started studying kemençe and lavta with Ross Daly, and a year later joined his group Lavyrinthos. In 1990 he represented Greece in Jeunesse Musicale de France in Paris. In the last decade Sinopoulos has collaborated with musicians from Greece and abroad in various genres from folk to jazz, and helped re-introduce the kemençe in Greek music. He was recently honored with the Melina Mercouri National Award for young artists. He is a graduate of the Department of Music Studies at the University of Athens, and currently completing his dissertation on “The theory and application of makam in the scholarly musical tradition of Constantinople,” under a grant from the Onassis Foundation.