Spiros Delegos

musician | ethnomusicologist | music teacher Doctoral Researcher, DocMus, Sibelius Academy Uniarts Helsinki Spiros Delegos was born in Patras, Greece, and is a salaried doctoral researcher at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki (academic years 2023-24 & 2024-25). As a doctoral candidate (since 2020) of the DocMus Doctoral School (Research Study Programme with supervisors Markus Mantere & Risto Pekka Pennanen), he is working on a research project entitled "Heterotopia and Ideology in Interwar Rebetiko". He holds a Master’s degree (2018) in “Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology” from the Department of Music Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA) and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the University of Patras. He has studied Balkan and Mediterranean musical traditions on the lavta (lute with microintervals from Istanbul) at the Municipal Conservatory of Patras under the supervision of Christos Tsiamoulis and Theory of "European Classical Music" (diplomas in Harmony & Counterpoint, taught by Vasiliki Philippeou) at the Philharmonic Foundation Conservatory of Patras. He came into contact with Ottoman Music and European classical mandolin by attending private lessons and several seminars-master classes (“Labyrinth”, "Music Village", etc.). He also has an excellent knowledge of the folk guitar and the Greek three-course bouzouki and baglamas. As a musician (since 1996), he has appeared at musical venues, live concerts, festivals and has been responsible for numerous tributes (“George Katsaros-Theologitis”, "Spiros Peristeris", “Music based on poems: D. Karatzas & A. Fostieris”, etc.) through musical ensembles of rebetiko, traditional, modern and classical styles (“Basso cantini”, “Trikyclo”, “Mantolinata of Patras”, "Vasilis Tsitsanis", etc.) performing on the guitar, mandolin and lavta. He has composed the music for the play “Adespoton” (written by Maria A. Spyropoulou) and he was co-founder and member of the Art Project team "Stalaktites" related to theatre and musical discourse. He was the founder and the head teacher of the “Urban Greek Popular Music Department" (2012-2023) at the Philharmonic Foundation Conservatory of Patras, and was the musical director of the “Urban Popular Music Orchestra” (2016-2020), a large ensemble with string, wind instruments, etc. He has given an array of musical workshops on makam modality and harmonisation in rebetiko and the urban popular tradition of the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans (Sibelius Academy, 1st Festival of Folk Guitar in Greece, Philharmonic Foundation Conservatory of Patras, etc.). He has been actively involved in research (since 2015) by presenting several papers at (ethno)musicology conferences in Greece and abroad (IMS, ICTM, etc.) and by publishing articles in Greek and international scientific journals and e-books (IMS Series Musicologica Balcanica, etc.), by peer-reviewing, and currently by translating-editing into Greek the edited book "Greek Music in America" (2019, University Press of Mississippi). His research interests, as an ethnomusicologist and mostly from a historical perspective, concern music cultures and idioms within the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean (especially rebetiko) around and during the interwar period, beyond ethnocentric and hegemonic ideological-cultural considerations. Finally, he is a member of ICTMD, IMS, International Research Collective: Popular Music in Greece, ICTMD Committee for Greece, Hellenic Musicological Society, and other musicological organisations.

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