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Journey to Ithaca
Journey to Ithaca began as a group of friends sharing their love and passion for creating original Greek music.
Makis Emmanouilidis had a collection of lyrics and music that he had written over a period of several years.
These songs were the inspiration for the birth of the group.
For the past several years the members of the group have been meeting to arrange, rehearse and bring alive, as original music, the expression of their personal experiences, influences and ideas.
Individually, the members of the group each have their own unique musical perspective and influences and as such we strive to create a cohesive group sound. One of the key factors in creating that sound during the composition process is to bring new musical concepts to the entire group either as a completed musical work or possibly a theme suggesting a new piece of music. Then, as a group, we incorporate individual musical ideas to arrange, orchestrate and complete the composition. In this way, by each group member providing input into the final composition, the resulting musical work exhibits the Journey to Ithaca “sound”. As Journey to Ithaca moves into the future, we will be evolving and incorporating new musical ideas into our compositions to expand on the group’s musical vocabulary captured on our first recording, “A Stroll Through Our Dreams/Âüëôá óôá üíåéñÜ ìáò“. |
Makis Emmanouilidis - Vocals, Guitar & Composition
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Makis was born in Kavala, Greece and came to Boston in 1976 to attend college. He earned a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and a Masters in Financial Services. He has been greatly influenced by Greek poets such as Kavafis, Seferis and Kostis Palamas. In his spare time he enjoys reading, writing poetry and playing soccer. |
Thanasis Haberis - Vocals, Percussion & Composition
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Thanasis was born in Athens, Greece and came to Boston in 1976 to attend Northeastern University’s School of Engineering. He began playing and arranging music in early high school, and during college played drums for numerous local bands. He has been inspired by the music of Stavros Xarhakos, the poetry of Nikos Gatsos and the writing of Nikos Tsiforos. His outside interests include fiction writing, and, he is a passionate sailor. |
Dimitrios Ioannidis - Bouzouki
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Dimitrios was born in Katerini, Greece and came to Boston in 1977 with his family. He graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in economics and political science and went on to Boston University School of Law where he earned a J.D. degree in 1990. He has been counsel to the Consulate General of Greece in Boston since 1992 and he limits his practice to international business transactions and litigation. He is a regular columnist for a Greek legal magazine in Greece, Sinigoros and he enjoys music, travel and teaching. He played bouzouki during his high school, college and law school years with his own band in the Boston area but has not been actively involved with a music group since then. Journey to Ithaca captured his attention and compelled him to further explore his music enthusiasm. |
Peter Kostopoulos - Keyboards & Clarinet
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Peter was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and began clarinet lessons at an early age. He attended the New England Conservatory of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston. As a young man he performed throughout New England with the popular Greek Band "Grecian Keys". Peter is a self-taught keyboardist and composes his own unique-style of "world" music that reflects his training as an American musician with a passion for Greek and Middle Eastern music. He also enjoys arranging and recording tunes from the big band era in his home recording studio. In addition to being a musician, Peter has a degree in Business Administration and is Chief Executive Officer of a marketing communications firm in Peabody, Massachusetts. |
Paul Sampsonis - Guitar, Vocals & Arranging
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Paul was born in Peabody, Massachusetts. He started his music education as a young child and then during his early high school years co-founded a local Greek music group. After earning his degree in Mathematics, Paul began his professional career as a Software Engineer. Remaining true to his love of music, though, he continued to lead his own Greek music groups and perform at many local venues in the greater New England area. Musically, Paul has been influenced by many contemporary Greek and American composers, arrangers and instrumentalists. In addition to music, his interests include Computer Engineering, reading and audio electronics. |
Nektaria Sofou-Boustris - Vocals
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Nektaria was born in Hiliomodi Korinthias, Greece. Showing interest and talent in music at a young age, her parents bought her a guitar and her music lessons began. After completing high school, she sang in clubs and had the opportunity to perform with Haris Alexiou and Stefano Korkolis. In 1992, she graduated from Deree College in Athens with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and then decided to come to Boston to study Vocal Performance at the Berklee College of Music. During that time, she also performed in Greek clubs and at numerous functions in the area. Nektaria continued graduate studies in education at the Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA and currently teaches general music and chorus at the elementary level in the Dedham Public School system. She particularly enjoys performing with Journey to Ithaca, playing music that is close to her heart and Greek heritage. |
Mark Turnbull - Bass
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Mark grew up in a small town in Illinois, where he taught himself to play guitar and bass in a series of garage bands and other musical experiments. After a brief interlude at the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City (which did offer him the chance to play classical, big band, show tunes, lounge music, jazz and rock) he moved to New York with an avant-garde jazz trio. Pursuing a fascination with world music, he studied sitar and North Indian vocal music for a number of years before returning to the bass, getting involved with Latin and, of course, Greek music. When he has the chance, he loves to work on Bossa Nova tunes, hit tennis balls, and mess around with computers and music. |
Panayiotis Vorvis - Bouzouki
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Panayiotis was born in Sparta, Greece. He became involved with music early in high school and played with a number of bands in Greece. He came to Boston in 1976 and became a member of a local Boston-based music group. His interests include skiing, fishing, hunting and traveling. |