Lefkimmi, always had a special local history and lifestyle, tightly linked with agriculture, the sea and travelling. Its musical traditions are distinctive and have influenced all of southern Corfu, the old Lefkimmi province and Paxos too.

The musical tradition of southern Corfu was always distinct from that of the rest of the great island and, notably, the geographically distant town of Corfu. The reasons for these differences were social and geographical: The majority of the working population were sailors, who travelled all over Greece and especially to the Peloponnese, Epiros, mainland Greece and Istanbul. Epiros drew another segment of the Lefkimi population with farming and commercial employment opportunities. Farm workers, especially women, would also travel to Paxos to pick olives during the winter. Many immigrants escaping Ottoman occupation on mainland Greece also moved to Lefkimmi and Paxos (mainly from the Souli area in Epiros, Peloponnese and Crete) bringing with them their own musical traditions.

All these comings and goings contributed to the special musical idiom of the area, enriched also by Western musical influences. In many of the pieces performed in our concert the audience will be able to recognize Western musical strands mixed in with Byzantine traditions.

Our musicians revive old, often forgotten tunes, along with songs still well-known to us today, melodies on the violin and the lute of exceptional finesse and virtuosity, the result of many years of research that have resulted in an invaluable album recording.