George Kaloudis is a cellist, lyricist, improviser, composer and cd producer in the classic section of DNA Label Records. He has collaborated in numerous recordings of CDs, films and theatrical productions in Greece. He gives recitals in concert halls, museums and festivals around the world and since 2014 he has been playing the cello at the Athenaeum Conservatory in Athens. EARLY YEARS He was born in 1973 in Athens to a musical family. His first language of expression was always music. He started playing the Cretan lyre at an early age, continuing his family tradition as a 4th generation lyre player. He studied cello with Claire Demeulenaere at the Athenaeum Conservatory in Athens, from where he received his diploma with excellent marks. The scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation enabled him to complete his personal aesthetic and technical approach to the cello and to study composition and improvisation under the guidance of jazz history teacher Ted Greene. DISCOGRAPHY His discography includes two albums with his personal compositions, his debut with the album TRUTH (2005) and then the album ON THE WIND (2009), with the kind support of the Ioannis F. Costopoulos Foundation. His new record production, JSBACH: Cello Suites on the Cretan Lyra, was officially released by DNA Label Records, in a world premiere, which he performed with respect to the original tones of the composer, giving an original interpretation, in one of the most important works of JSBach in the history of classical music. Two of the important elements of this record work lie in the fact that it is the first time that a Greek traditional instrument performs classical music, as well as the peculiarity of the specific Cretan lyre that he had to make for the interpretation of the specific music. In 2005, through his past in the Cretan lyre but also his knowledge in the cello, he created an innovation in the Cretan lyre, adding a 4th, low Do string, to the already existing three-stringed lyre, expanding its capabilities and creating a new, personal , interpretive and technical, approach. Through this remarkable ability and love for the Cretan lyre, he led it outside the framework of traditional music, opening its interpretive horizons in Western European Music. DISTINCTIONS AND COOPERATIONS In October 2017 he premiered the recital "Innovating Tradition" in Cyprus, at the archeological site of the Royal Manor House in Paphos. In August 2017, the Prefecture of Chania and the Tax Office of Antiquities of Chania invited him to present the premiere of the recital "Innovating Tradition" at the reopening of the Ancient Theater of Aptera, in Chania, for more than 1700 years of silence. J.S.BACH: Cello Suites on the Cretan Lyra, made their world premiere in March 2017, at the Athens Concert Hall, in the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall. In October 2016 he was invited to the famous festival "Nuit Blanche" in Paris, where he presented in successive concerts, excerpts from the Suites of J.S.Bach on the 4-string Cretan lyre. In September 2015 he was awarded a Special Jury Prize for his musical composition and performance at the IV WORLD PUPPET THEATER FESTIVAL in Almaty, Kazakhstan. George is also a frequent guest at many major music festivals around the world, such as the Fringe Festival in New York, the Biennale in Rome, the Manchester Jazz Festival, the White Nights Festival in Petrozavodsk, Russia, and the Celtic Connections International at SSE. Glasgow Hydro. As a soloist of the 4-string Cretan lyre he has collaborated with the orchestras: Academic Symphony Orchestra Dimitri Shostakovich, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Karelia Philharmonic Orchestra, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Kamerata Europaea, and the Lege Artis choirs in Ag. Petersburg and Ernst Senff Choir in Berlin. George Kaloudis gives concerts around the world in concert halls, archeological sites and cathedrals, in Greece, England, Scotland, Wales, Russia, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Cyprus, Holland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, , USA and Canada. He presents the compositions from his discography, with the colors of the cello and the Cretan lyre and with the technique of live-loop-recording, where it allows him to convey to the public a uniquely special atmospheric and multidimensional sound environment.
