Lefteris Kordis
Lefteris Kordis is a pianist, composer, and Inner Circle Music recording artist, recognized as a unique voice in the Mediterranean Jazz genre. Born in Elefsis, an ancient city near Athens, Greece, he grew up in a multicultural environment that deeply shaped his musical identity. Since the age of four, he has immersed himself in a wide spectrum of genres—including Greek folk, European chamber music, and jazz—performing, composing, and studying with deep curiosity and passion.
He is a graduate of the Experimental Music Gymnasium and Lyceum of Pallini, the National Conservatory of Athens, and the Ionian University. He continued his education in the U.S. with Fulbright and Onassis Foundation scholarships, earning both a Master’s and Doctorate in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
Kordis has performed in major international venues including Carnegie Hall, the Panama Jazz Festival, Athens Epidaurus Festival, and the Toronto Jazz Festival, sharing the stage with musical legends such as Steve Lacy, Sheila Jordan, Mikis Theodorakis, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Lovano, Jay Clayton, Vasilis Saleas, Vasilis Skoulas, Glykeria, Greg Osby, Panayotis Lalezas, and Robin Eubanks, among others.
In 2022, he composed original music for the feature film Here’s Yianni! and appeared on screen accompanying actress Julia Ormond on piano. The film, written and directed by Christina Eliopoulos, stars Joe Cortese, Kevin Pollak, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Roberts, Colleen Camp, and Sofia Vassilieva.
A devoted student of jazz pedagogue Charlie Banacos, Kordis dedicated his doctoral dissertation to Banacos’s pioneering teaching methods. Today, he carries that legacy forward as Professor at Berklee College of Music, Associate Professor of Jazz and Afro-American Studies at Ionian University, and Instructor of Music at Hellenic College Holy Cross. He is also the founder of the Intergalactic Music Academy, an online platform for holistic and interdisciplinary music education.
Previously, he developed and taught curriculum at the New England Conservatory (2005–2015) and Berklee Global Jazz Institute (2016–2019), working alongside jazz masters John Patitucci, Danilo Pérez, Terri Lyne Carrington, George Garzone, Joe Lovano, and Dave Liebman. He is also co-director—with Dimos Dimitriadis—of Aqua Jazz, a project that bridges East Mediterranean folk traditions with jazz.
Kordis is active in Boston’s spiritual music scene, serving as organist at Antioch Baptist Church in Dorchester, and formerly as gospel choir director and organist at Columbus Avenue AME Zion Church, Berachah Church, and other congregations.
He performs regularly with his jazz trio featuring Brad Barrett or John Lockwood on bass and Dor Herskovits on drums. He also co-leads Penny Muse Band, a cross-disciplinary ensemble blending jazz art song and folk traditions.
Kordis has released seven albums as a leader and contributed to numerous others as a sideman. His latest double album, Aquarelles: Celebrating the Inner Child (Inner Circle Music, 2024), is a critically acclaimed collection of original “sound paintings” featuring Jerry Bergonzi, Lefteris Bournias, Edmar Colón, Brad Barrett, Jorge Roeder, Dor Herskovits, Eviatar Slivnik, Harris Lambrakis, Isaac Romagosa, and many other collaborators from Boston, Athens, and New York.
Panayota Haloulakou
the energetics of the voice, energy medicine
Panayota sings jazz, Greek, and experimental music. She composes songs based on poetry and inspiring texts. Her singing and writing styles have influences from Greek folklore and art songs, chamber music, and the world of jazz and free improvised music.
Her latest projects include the formation of an experimental vocal duet called EquiVox, who released their first recording called Breaking the Spell in February 2022. Also, a series of Adventure Songs based on healing texts by energy healer/performance artist/writer Birds WG. This project is called Inside the Maze and will be released in 2022 as a video series. Her latest discography includes Laconikon: Selected Poems by Odysseus Elytis (released in 2020), which features original music for jazz quintet and small chamber ensembles that include combinations of voice, 5-string violin, cello, yayli tanbur, saxophones, piano, bass, and drums. For this project, she was inspired by the elegant poetry of Odysseus Elytis.
Panayota is the co-leader of the group Penny Muse Band, which performs original compositions and fresh arrangements of Greek pop and folk songs. Additionally, she if the female lead vocalist of the Greek Music Ensemble, a renowned ensemble that presents theme concerts of Greek music in New England and beyond.
As a teenager, Panayota participated in concerts at prestigious venues, such as the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, when she was a member of the professional choir Fons Musicalis. In those concerts, which had a huge impact on her artistic evolution, she collaborated with Greek artists George Dalaras, Notis Mavroudis, Vassiliki Lavina, and Yiannis Markopoulos, as well as with the Netherlands Philarmonic and Kamerata Orchestras. Additionally, as an undergrad student at the Ionian University in Corfu, Greece, Panayota worked closely with British conductors Peter Seymour and David Blake in significant theatrical productions that she still treasures.
In 2002, Panayota received the Fulbright scholarship to study Jazz Voice Performance at Boston's New England Conservatory. Since then, she has performed with jazz legends and inspirational artists/humans Steve Lacy, Irene Aebi, Sheila Jordan, Joe Lovano, Marty Erlich, and John Lockwood, as well as with rising artists Lefteris Kordis, Roni Eytan, Edmar Colon, Petros Klampanis, Eviatar Slivnik, and Alec Spiegelman. She has also collaborated with American theater director Jackie Romeo, a professor at Emerson College; with popular Greek singers Vasilis Skoulas, Panayotis Lalezas, and George Perris; with dancers, painters, yogis, and energy healers; and with the Berklee College of Music Gospel Choir. She has appeared in major academic venues, concert halls, and festivals in the greater New England, New York, Missouri, Florida, Vermont, Texas, and Greece for musical performances, workshops, and seminars.
Panayota also serves as faculty for Aqua Jazz, a program the builds bridges between folk musicians and jazz improvisers in Greece and the East Mediterranean region. She is the Choir Director of the Greek Chorale Boston, formerly known as the Maliotis Greek Choir. The chorale has performed with Greek folk artist Vasilis Skoulas and has appeared in several seasonal and holiday concerts. Since March 2020, they have focused on song releases through YouTube as well as on a few selected performances.
Panayota maintains a private studio teaching voice, piano, music theory, composition, and improvisation for all ages inspired by the Estill Voice Training System and her teachers-mentors Steve Lacy, Mary Klimek, Dominique Eade, Frank Carlberg, and Allan Chase. She has recorded four albums as a leader/co-leader and has also been a guest vocalist in other artists's recording projects. She has sung in several languages, which has been a lot of fun: Greek, Ancient Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and Turkish.
In December, 2020, Panayota began her studies in Eden Energy Medicine close to Julie Fowler. She intends to become a certified practitioner in 2023. She currently leads group classes in-person and in her Zoom room. She has a vision to bridge the worlds of music and energy medicine for healing and to elevate humanity.