MARIA LOUKA

MARIA LOUKA was born and brought up in Crete. She studied piano and music theory at the Greek Conservatory and participated at the youth choir of the Municipality of Heraklion. In 2000, she moved to Athens to study at the Department of Touristic Studies and at the same time she started taking vocal classes at the Greek Conservatory of Athens. She also attended the Department of Theatrical studies at the « Theatre of Changes ». Living in the «big metropolis» though, she gave up everything and dedicated her time to performing. At first, she worked in «Rebetadika», music scenes with folk music from Asia Minor, until she had a proposal to work at the music performance «Se Yiortino Agonisma» that was put on by Dionissis Savopoulos and Nikos Papazoglou during the winter of 2002. Following that, she performed on concerts in Greece and abroad, some of them in collaboration with Giannis Markopoulos,as a member of the youth choir of Heraklion. She has collaborated with Dionisis Savopoulos, Nikos Papazoglou, Socratis Malamas, Miltiadis Paschalidis, Thodoris Papadopoulos, Nikos Pipinelis,Manolis Lidakis,Eleni Vitali,Giannis Xaroulis,Stamos Semsis. At the age of 23, she released her first personal CD entitled «Kalimera», which contains 12 songs. She has written the music for 9 and the lyrics for 11 out of them. One song was created by Charis Manousakis and another two by Nikos Zournis, who was only 21 years old at the time. Socratis Malamas participates in one song, as well as other select musicians from Thessaloniki, who usually accompany Thanassis Papakonstadinou and Socratis Malamas on concerts.She has particapated also in ''Kentro Dierxomenon'',a cd that Nikos Mamagakis(composer) released in 2007.Live sth Syro 22,23 Martiou 2008 me ton Pavlo Pavlidi