Dimitris Mystakidis is a rembetiko* guitar virtuoso and a music professor who for the last 20 years has pursued his personal quest investigating the roots and branches of rembetiko music and was officially selected to showcase his work during last WOMEX (Oct 27, 2017) in Katowice, Poland.
(*rembetiko guitar is a type of acoustic guitar, similar to parlor)

AMERIKA / Solo concert

Dimitris' solo concert AMERIKA is a rembetiko-blues project with his unique arrangements of songs written by Greek immigrants in USA over a century ago. His performance combines music along with video and narrates the hardships of migration - the timeless and up-to-date migration issues of pain, suffer, fear and hope.

Here's a quote from fRoots about his concert:
Dimitris Mystakidis
(Greece)
One of the greats of Greek traditional music, today performing only rembetiko I think. His voice is thick and languid. Extremely lived in. His (acoustic) guitar playing is exactly fitting, all his technique is in service of the songs.

Not a hint of pandering to the audience. The embodiment of a particular and ancient tradition. The songs are introduced by recordings in Greek with subtitles yet his voice is so just-right that understanding comes through the texture of the words as much as through their semantics.

The deeper resonances of his voice and the slow, stately tunes merge with those of the guitar in a subliminal harmonic chorus. Very very lovely music.
And a wonderful example of how passion can be all the stronger for smouldering within exact artistic limits of style and tempo rather than relying on speed, volume and going over the top.
A profound and essential lesson for many young musicians.

ESPERANTO / Quartet concert

A colorful anthology of some of the most important rembetika arranged exclusively for Greek folk guitar from his highly acclaimed album "Esperanto”.