 Jannis Alexandris was born in Thessaloniki, Greece with origins from Smyrna and Ephesus and he studied
at the Euclid Technical School. From 1966 to 1970 he worked for the State Theatre of Northern Greece
as a member of the choire and studied music, dance, rhythm, phonetics, etc. He also studied guitar
and at 1968 he started playing professionally Modern Greek music. From 1973 to 1983 he lived in
Stockholm, where he started to study and play traditional Greek music.
Since 1979 he builds eastern string instruments like oud, bouzouki, baglama, lute, tambouras, lavda,
politiki lyra, etc and does not hesitate to experiment with forms and sounds. He has participated
in several exhibitions of traditional instruments in Greece and in Portugal.
For several years, he’s been a member of the “Tombourlika” ensemble, which has an enormous repertoire of Rebetika
songs and often collaborates with the well-known Rembetika singer Maryo. With her he also
participated in several recordings (“Café Aman”, "Laledakia" as well as in older productions).
For the last 15 years he is a member of "Primavera en Salonico", a group led by the famous composer and
singer Savina Yannatou. They explore world music (Mediterranean, Balkan, Caribbean, Sephardic tradition)
and perform in concerts all over the world.
J.A. lives in Thessaloniki and has two sons, Stellios and Filippos.
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