Katerina Koutouzi comes from Kalymnos, a small greek island in the Aegean Sea. She spent her childhood years on the island and her teenage years in Athens. Growing up on an island, Katerina was always close to the sea and the traditional island music. Her great-grand father Theofilos Magriplis was the most respected and established violin player in the Dodecanese, the group of islands around Kalymnos. To this day he is celebrated as the music master of the Dodecanese and his unique virtuosity in playing is passed on from generation to generation through his teachings to young musicians . Her mother played the accordion and wrote poetry. Katerina taught herself the accordion by observing her mother and by learning all the old greek songs she used to play. Her father loved to invite local musicians to his house and sing with them the island songs. He played the harmonica and used to play the music of Theodorakis and Xilouris in his car. Her grandparents were also singing the island songs and especially loved chanting byzantine psalms on a daily basis! As a teenager living in Athens Katerina was often asked to sing and play the accordion and the piano to accompany school choirs. Falling in love with dance, she was introduced to the beautiful music of Hatzidakis and Karaindrou through her first dance teacher Eleanna Vidali. It was in Athens where she discovered the beauty of minimal music and started listening to Wim Mertens. At 19 Katerina left Greece to move to London where she studied dance and choreography at the Laban Centre of Movement and Dance. She loved her choreography studies and now admits that it is the same creative process as when making music. It was at the dance college where Katerina learned a lot more about contemporary music and in the years after her dance studies she explored dance and electronic music and went on to study music technology.Katerina Koutouzi now lives and works in London as a musician while she is writing, producing and performing her own work.
