Vangelis Karipis
Percussion
He was born in Athens in 1971.
He studied Byzantine music and theory at the Greek Conservatory, where he graduated in 1992. At the same time, he began studying percussion, initially as a self-taught musician and later taking lessons from renowned teachers such as Tricy Shankaral, Joe Santos, Jammey Haddad, and Arto Tuncboyaciayan. To date, he has collaborated with many Greek composers and singers (Dionysis Savvopoulos, Thanos Mikroutsikos, Nikos Kypourgos, Nikos Xydakis, Orpheas Peridis, Giorgos Andreou, En Kardia, Socrates Malamas, Christos Tsiamoulis, Evanthia Reboutsika, Alkinoos Ioannidis, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Giorgos Dalaras, Domna Samiou, Chronis Aidonidis, etc.) participating in performances in Greece and abroad (Savora, Domna Samiou at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Womad festivals, Meinz festival, Sfinx festival, etc.).
He has also collaborated with internationally renowned soloists such as Haig Yazdjan, Giotis Kiourtzoglou, Socrates Sinopoulos, Ross Dally, Ara Dinkjan, Arto Tuncboyaciayan, Zohar Fresco, Theodosi Spasov, Misirli Ahmet, Karim Ziad, Enver Ismailov, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, Yordal Tockan, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, and Derya Turkan.
His participation in discography over the last 18 years is remarkable, with approximately 400 productions, as well as recordings for theatrical performances.
In January 2004, he represented Greece at the international percussion meeting organized in Tunisia as part of the MediMuses program. Through MediMuses, he taught seminars in Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Tunisia, the Netherlands, and England.
In April 2004, he was invited by Greek composer Yannis Psathas to perform with the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble in the Netherlands and Germany and with the Stroma group in New Zealand. His collaboration with Yannis Psathas continued in 2016, when he was invited again by the Wellington Music University for the recordings and tour of the anniversary documentary "No Man's Land" about World War I.
In 1998, together with Petros Kourtis and Andreas Papas, they formed the percussion group KROTALA and toured at: the 5th Berkley College of Music Percussion Festival in 1999, the Rhythmstick Festival in London in 2003, Forum 2004 in Barcelona, EXPO 2005 in Japan, and participated in a recording with Lorena Muckennit.
They have released the albums: KRUSTA (1995 FM RECORDS) in collaboration with Giorgos Gevelis and Andreas Papas, KROTALA (2002 ETERRA MUSIC), VOICES OF CRUSTA (2005 METRO Magazine) and PERCUSSION PICTURES (2011 ANTART PRODUCTIONS).
He participated in the recording of music for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
He has taught percussion at the music high schools of Pallini and Chaidari, the Model Music Center of Piraeus, the Panarmonio Conservatory, Peristeri Cultural Center, Modern Music School, Athens Conservatory, and Pangaia Music School. For the past five years, he has been teaching traditional percussion to groups throughout Greece, and for the past two years he has been a member of the music and movement group "Ta Pedia Krouei" (The Children Play).
Since 2009, together with Haig Yazdjan on oud and Giotis Kiourtsoglou on bass, they have been touring Greece and Europe as a trio. He is also a member of the Ara Dinkjan Quartet, together with Socrates Sinopoulos on the politiki lyra and Yannis Kyriakides on piano.
Since October 2016, he has been teaching percussion in the Master's program in Musicology at the University of Athens.