One of the things we love in Greece is music!!

It is a tradition to most place in Greece to have their special sound or instruments. Music must be a way of expressing more than feelings. It expresses from where you are, how the land is and the air you breath. Music is your land and that sound must resemble it !

Epirus music contains folk songs that are mostly pentatonic and polyphonic, characterised as relaxed, gentle and exceptionally beautiful, and sung by both male and female singers …something that echoes and flows like the wind between the mountains.  The clarinet is the most prominent folk instrument in Epirus, used to accompany dances, mostly slow and heavy, like the menousis, fisouni, podhia, sta dio, sta tria, zagorisios, kentimeni, koftos, yiatros and tsamikos. The polyphonic song of Epirus constitutes one of the most interesting musical forms, not only for the east Mediterranean and the Balkans, but also for the worldwide repertoire of the folk polyphony like the yodeling of Switzerland. Except from its scale, what pleads for the very old origin of the kind is its vocal, collective, rhetorical and modal character.

What we can offer you, to bring you closer to that, is a visit to one of the best manufacturers of musical instruments, specialising in string instruments, Stavros Ntoukas.

Their company was founded in 1983 in Ioannina, Greece and specializes in the manufacturing, repairing and selling of musical instruments. Christos Dukas, the founder of the company was an apprentice if the famous Dragan Musulin along with Christianl Stoll in Dieter Hoph. In 1996, Stavros Doukas, Christos’ son, takes over the company and brings a whole new range of services and products from the largest musical manufacturers of the world.

For all of you who want a closer look in history of Epirus music, Stavros and his father can explain the music and show you how they make traditional instruments!

For more info you can sent us an email requesting to visit NS Workshop in Ioannina and we will get back to you to arrange everything!

In case you want to download music we found the compilation of Chris King very good! You will find it HERE 

A really nice article we read recently on Epirus music and we recommend as a nice read is HERE