Music of Crete

Cretan music expert Giorgos Xylouris, a master of the lute and accomplished singer, has been collaborating with drummer Jim White, co-founder of Australian rock band Dirty Three, on a project dubbed Xylouris White since 2013.

Cretan music expert Giorgos Xylouris, a master at the lute and accomplished singer, joins forces with drummer Jim White, one of the founders of the Australian act Dirty Three, at Six Dogs on Thursday, November 8.

Singer-songwriter Giannis Haroulis, known for infusing the traditional music of Crete with modern folk and rock elements, is performing at the open-air Gis Theater as part of the summer festival organized every year by the National Theater of Northern Greece. The show on Monday, June 18, starts at 9 p.m. and tickets cost 13 euros.

The Ilion Association of Cretans will host its annual wine festival, which as is customary will include lots of food, music and dancing to accompany the celebration of one of the island's finest products. The festival starts on Friday at 9 p.m. and will continue on Saturday night as well. Traditional Cretan music will be performed by the Nikos Zoidakis band.

After 10 sold-out performances last season, the Greek National Opera's Alternative Stage production of "Erotokritos" returns for one more night, this time at the open-air Herod Atticus Theater.

The fourth Cretan World Music Festival, held on Wednesday, July 19, in Alikianos in Hania, is hosting three ensembles whose music is inspired by the island's history and landscapes. The evening opens with the Cretan Music Group, comprising festival founder Maria Manousaki on the violin and four skilled musicians playing original work and adaptations that blend Cretan music and American jazz.

More than 100 singers and musicians on both traditional and conventional instruments will pay tribute to the music of Crete in a big concert on Wednesday, June 28, at the open-air Herod Atticus Theater, organized by the Greek Festival.

For three successive generations, the family of the legendary Cretan singer-songwriter Nikos Xylouris and his brother, the equally famous Antonis Xylouris, known as Psarantonis, have kept the Aegean island’s music tradition alive, adapting and spreading it to thousands of people around the world.