Pano Hora Ensemble Wins Its First Award

I am pleased to share the exciting news that Pano Hora’s album, Evlogía, has just won third place in the 2025 Vasili Stavrakas Spotify Competition. That means that Mr. Stavrakas listened to Evlogía on Spotify more than all but two other albums. (Spotify apparently tracks the top five albums favored by each of its listeners). We were notified of the good news by a mutual friend. I recognize that this is not a very well-known award, and you might ask: “who cares”? The answer is that we care. There is no greater compliment we can receive than for someone to choose to listen to our music. And repeat listening is a validation like no other. In appreciation for the honor from Mr. Stavrakas, I will be sending him a copy of our new album, Gethsemane , which was just released. If you are curious about which albums I listened to most this past year, so am I. I don’t track that information. But I can guess. Flery Dadonaki’s and Manos Hadjidakis’s rendering of some of Hadjidakis’s greatest music in two different albums likely topped the chart for me: Sta Litourgika Tou Manou Hadjidaki and O Kyklos Tou CNS . I’d guess number three for me was another Hadjidakis album featuring several other great vocalists: I Laiki Agora . (I cannot get enough Hadjidakis.) If you are not familiar with any of these three, I suggest you have a listen. And while we are at it, let me recommend three other albums I listen to repeatedly: Arleta’s Romancero Gitano (set to music by Mikis Theodorakis), Tom Jobim’s Inédito (his all-time best and most personal album), and Beyza Yazgan’s Human Cocoon (a collection of her recent solo piano compositions). In case you have a chance to check out some of these and find yourself also addicted to listening to one or more of them, please drop me a line to let me know.