Glafkos Kontemeniotis

Glafkos Kontemeniotis was born on the island of Cyprus in 1969. He showed musical interest at an early age and began studying classical piano at the age of 9. He came to New York in 1988 and studied classical piano with Paul Sheftel and jazz piano privately with Lee Evans ,and later with Harold Danko at the Manhattan School Of Music. He received his MA in composition in 1998 from Hunter College. During his MA Studies he studied jazz piano with Mike Longo and composition with Anthony Branker. He has been working professionally as a musician since he first came to new York in 1988 and has been performing extensively within the greek and jazz communities. Performances include "Greek Musical Journey" at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and a musical tribute to the late jazz great Lionel Hampton at the Schomburg Center. He has performed in many clubs and venues including the Blue Note,Birdland,The Jazz Standard,Cape Cod Jazz Festival,92nd Street Y,Cornelia Street Cafe,Lycavitos Theatre in Greece,Antigua Jazz Festival as well in various universities throughout the country, such as Yale,Cornell,Princeton and the St Louis University . Glafkos has performed and recorded with a number of well known jazz singers and musicians in New York, including Mable Lee, Mercedes Hall,Priscilla Owens,Claudio Roditi ,Jerry Dodgion as well as the very popular Greek singer Gregory Maninakis, mostly known for his renditions of rembetika songs. His compositions and arrangements are featured in a number of recordings including "Within Reach" which features his own jazz trio "Monk For President" aka "Ear Soul Hand", "Music Of The Wings" which features his arrangements of greek folk and rembetika songs in a jazz style , and Mercedes Hall's "Pure Emotion" which he also co-produced .He also participared in the well known recording "Cafe Aman America", a collection of songs of the first greek immigrants in America. He has been favorably mentioned in many reviews including one from Jazz Times and one from Jazz Improv magazine. His own recording "Progress" was recently released in April 2010 and already receiving great quotes and reviews.

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