Maria Katinari

Maria Katinari ( Greek Μαρία Κατινάρη ) was born in Chania on Crete as the eldest daughter of Antonis Katinaris and Maria Rippi. She is a Greek actress , singer and songwriter .

youth

Since her father was a well-known and successful composer and bouzouki player and her mother, herself a singer, also came from a family of musicians, Maria had first stage experiences at an early age.

During a period of youthful rebellion against the family's rebetiko tradition, she joined a rock group as a singer when she was just thirteen. At the age of 16 she began to travel as a singer through Europe during the school holidays.

She performed in live clubs in the Netherlands, England and Germany. She studied movement and dance in Paris, where she financed her studies and living with performances.

Back in Athens she took acting lessons and continued studying classical ballet and jazz dance . After some success as an actress on the Athens theater stage, especially with plays by the playwright Georgios Skourtis , her unsteady nature drove her to Cairo , where she studied classical and traditional Arabic music for over three years and also performed as an interpreter of Arabic music.

Artistic creation

Maria Katinari is best known in Greece for her live performances and television. Her discography has so far been limited to three personal albums. In addition, she has participated in successful music productions and landed some hits.

She recently announced that in 2007 she would release a new album with covers of well-known songs by her father.

During her work on Greek live stages, she has worked with well-known Greek artists such as Stratos Dionisiou , Georgios Zampetas , Dimitris Mitropanos , Giannis Parios , Panos Gavalas , Poly Panou , Keti Gray , Rita Sakelariou , Anna Vissi , Bambis Goles , Georgios Ksintaris , Bambis Tsertos , Antonis Repanis and others worked together.

Under the musical direction of Vasilis Dimitriou , she made a successful concert tour through Greece with the State Orchestra of Greek Music of Stavros Xarchakos .

In addition to her regular appearances in music programs on Greek television, she has also actively participated in an international documentary series about Greek music, dedication to the rebetiko and social songs (Greek: Αφιερώματα στο ρεμπέτικο και κοινωδνικό τραγούι ).

She has worked on several very successful music productions by well-known Greek artists and landed popular hits. Her successful CD If I Were a Man (Greek Αν ημουν αντρας ), published by the MBI label, deals musically with the topic of the emancipation of women in the period between the world wars . The growing influence of women on society in Greece, which was flooded by streams of refugees from Asia Minor as a result of the wars with Turkey , is told with the help of contemporary rebetiko songs.

She lives in Athens.

Web links

• Very extensive Greek site about rebetiko music (Greek)
• Official website of Maria Katinari
• Unpublished live recordings and audio samples from the album If I were a man