Lara Eidi

BIO: Lara Eidi

Born in Athens to Lebanese – Canadian parents, Lara Eidi has always been influenced by her multicultural background- listening to the Woodstock scene of the 60’s from the age of ten and simultaneously traditional Arabic, Greek and Irish songs.

She began taking classical piano lessons at the age of 9, and studied classical music at Odeo Kodaly till the age of 17, whilst starting to perform at her school and various concerts, one of which included the 1996 Megaron Mousikis production of Carmen.

It wasn’t until after she completed her studies at Deree College in Literature and went to Scotland for her Postgraduate Diploma that she decided to pursue music. She started gigging around pubs in Edinburgh , to return to Greece in 2008, to which she was fortunate enough to be involved in the ‘CineMaria’ production at the Megaro Mousikis with Maria Farandouri, working alongside singers such as Karen Solomon (whom she had trained with for 3 years as a modern vocalist). She then sang as a lead jazz vocalist for the Gypsy Swing Quintet ‘Hot Club de Grece’, and soon after for a short but productive period worked and recorded and collaborated with the indie band Leon as a singer-orchestrator, guitarist and pianist. Simultaneously taking harmony lessons at Odeo Mousikis Praxis with George Argyropoulous (Berklee College of Music) and training classically with Nina Kaloutsa, (National Conservatory of Russia) she decided to put together whatever she learned throughout the years and start her own project, working alongside musicians who share her love for variety.

Her music is folk based blending Celtic, folk rock, and eastern folk elements.
She also gigged as a solo artist acoustically around Athens, and it was then she started writing her own songs, and compositions. She currently composed music for Aliki Tsilgari’s Short Animated entry into the London Film Festival, as well as her song, “Refuge”, that is to be used for a national Greek environmental campaign (Militos Technologies.
She recently performed at the Vinifest of Beirut Lebanon in October 2011, where she was happy to share the stage with great musicians such as renowned guitarist Guilio Tampalini, the Lebanese-French Choir group En-Fa-Mi, (led under the French Director Oscar Sisto). She performed, accompanying herself on the piano and guitar, works from the 60’s folk and blues scene (Dylan , Gershwin) up till the 90’s classic rock (Chapman, Dion).

She also gave a New Years concert with a jazz trio, as part of the ongoing Athens Christmas Festivities.

Finally, she gave a small recital as part of a workshop for musician and composer Maros Theodorakis, at her Vocal Studio.

She then took on one of her most important projects to date, which led to the culmination of her debut 4 track EP, titled “Little People”, together with guitarist Fivos Zitis and cellist Stavros Parginos. Lara performs vocals, piano and acoustic guitar on the track, and has performed as the closing act of the Athens Fringe Festival in June 2012, and is giving her second concert at the same arts Venue, Vrysaki, on September 25^th, where her album will be available for purchase.

Contact: http://laraeidi.com/contact-lara/

email: eidilara461@gmail.com