Vassilis Rakopoulos

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Vassilis Rakopoulos ( Greek Βασίλης Ρακόπουλος ; born December 31, 1951 in Athens ) is a Greek guitarist and trumpeter.

Life

Rakopoulos studied until 1975 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens , followed by postgraduate studies in the subjects of wave mechanics and business administration.

In the 1970s and 1980s he worked as a guitarist in concerts and recordings by well-known composers such as Manos Hadjidakis , Mikis Theodorakis , Dionysis Savvopoulos , Thanos Mikroutsikos and Michalis Grigoriou , and he also appeared in the Athens jazz scene with Johnny Labizy , Rudolf Dašek and Bella Lacatos and toured Europe, the US and Canada, where he worked with jazz greats like Bill Evans .

In 1980 he passed the entrance examination at the Bern Conservatory , where he studied jazz guitar until 1986 and trumpet as a minor. He also attended lectures in counterpoint and fugue with Mladen Gutesha , orchestration and composition with Axel Jungbluth and pedagogy courses at the University of Bern . In the following years he appeared as a member of the big band of the Swiss Jazz School with musicians like Billy Brooks , Art Farmer and Rufus Reid and took part in recordings of the big band of the Swiss radio.

In 1990 he returned to Greece. There he recorded his own albums and performed at international jazz festivals in Thessaloniki, Petra and Santorin, also at the International Rome Festival and at A-Fes in Skopje (with Aziza Mustafa Zadeh and Egberto Gismonti ). From 2003 he taught harmony and jazz guitar at the Ionian University . In 2004 he participated in the cultural program of the Summer Olympics in Athens.

Discography

  • Roxane , 1993
  • Choros ton Pyrson (Fire Dance), 2001
  • IRIS (with Ross Daly )
  • Enotites treis
  • Ammon , 2005

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rakopoulos, Vassilis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek guitarist, trumpeter and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens