Aristidis Moschos
Aristeidis Moschos (Greek: Αριστείδης Μόσχος, 1930 - November 8, 2001) was a Greek player and teacher of the santouri.
Biography
Moschos was born in Agrinio in the Aitoloakarnania prefecture. He was the fifth out of ten children. The family was originally from the village of Pentalofos near the town of Agrinio. In that village his father owned a large amount of land which he later sold and moved the family to Agrinio where he opened two cafés where music was played. In the first musicians from Constantinople, Smyrna and Armenia appeared while the other han a European orchestra. His father was a gifted clarino player who used it to play traditional Greek as well as European music. His brother played the violin. The family's cafes were visited by some of the greatest musicians of that time including Rita Abatzi, Marika Politissa, Eskenazi, etc. Aristidis Moschos first heard the santouri from a Romanian touring musical group and came to love the instrument.
His first teacher was a member of that group, Nestoras Batsi. He quickly learned how to play and started appearing in his father's businesses. After the war, he left Agrinio and went to Athens where he attended the Greek Lyceum. With the Lyceum he did tours all over the world. He participated with many singers, musicians and actors. He made many radio and television broadcasts with modern and folk music. He released fifteen records, of which three became gold and two became platimum. He participated as a soloist in around 150 other records.
In 1985, he ran the Traditional Music People's School which functioned as a nonprofit company. There he taught several musical instruments as well as Byzantine music.
He was honoured by several municipalities and organizations as well as the Greek parliament.
He died on November 8, 2001.
References
- The first version of the article is translated from the article at the Greek Wikipedia