Dimitris Tsakas

Dimitris Tsakas studied under scholarship at Berklee College of Music with masters such as Andy Mc Gee, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone and Steve Wilson.He has taken part in a lot of record productions and live performances by many Greek and foreign artists in venues such as  the closing ceremony for the Olympic Games in 2004, as well as some of the top musicians in the Greek jazz scene.

Dimitris is the most recorded saxophonist in the Greek scene for the last two decades, featured in over than 200 albums across all genres.

During the same period he has been a long term collaborator with some of the most established artists in Greece such as  Eleftheria Arvanitaki ,Charis Alexiou , Demis Roussos and Maria Farantouri.

He is well known for working with academy award winner, composer Vangelis Papathanasiou .

He is featured as a soloist  on his “Blade  Runner Trilogy 25th Anniversary”album as well as The Stephen Hawking tribute ,which goes under the professor’s  Stephen Hawking synthesised voice. 

The music with Hawking’s message  was beamed into space by ESA

His jazz band has taken part in concerts and festivals in Greece and abroad.

He wrote music  for the Athens  Epidaurus festival  which is featured in a series of theatrical plays around the country

As an educator he teaches Saxophone and Jazz  Harmony and he also also gives music clinics and workshops all over Greece

He presented Duke Pearson’s masterpiece “Cristo Redentor” in collaboration with the ERT National Symphonic Orchestra and Choir at the 2016  New Year’s Day concert.

Also he presented with great success for the first time in Greece, the legendary piece “Charlie Parker with strings” performing as a soloist with the ERT Contemporary Music Orchestra. This project  recorded for the Greek national radio and the European Broadcasting Union

Dimitris  released three personal albums “Growing Up” which was recorded in New York , “A Man Dreams’, under Minos EMI-Universal and “Back Of Beyond”

He Presented his last album at the 2021 Athens Technopolis Jazz Festival as the main event

For the first time in Greece he played as a soloist saxophone player the Legendary

“Dark Side Of The Moon” in a symphonic version with the national Radio Symphonic orchestra at Stavros Niarchos main stage

As an educator he teaches Saxophone and Jazz  Harmony and he also also gives music clinics and workshops all over Greece

Dimitris is the cultural director for a series of jazz events “Jazz at the Museum” at the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens Greece

Since 2022 He is curating the biggest Jazz festival in Greece under the name “Jazz at the Plateia at the Athens Epidaurus Festival

Gear

alto sax : Selmer Mark VI serial:57xxx 

soprano sax : Selmer Mark VI serial 200xxx