Domna Samiou

Domna Samiou (Greek: Δόμνα Σαμίου; 12 October 1928 – 10 March 2012) was a prominent Greek researcher and performer of Greek folk music. She received her first formal musical training from Simon Karas. For over half a century she collected, recorded, and performeda traditional songs of Greece (demotika), around the world, appealing not only to the Greek diaspora, but also introducing non-Greek audiences to traditional Greek folk music.

Born in the poor district of Kaisariani, Athens in 1928 (one of many neighbourhoods established with the influx of Greek refugees from Turkey in 1922), Samiou was the daughter of Greek refugees from the village Bayındır near Smyrna in Asia Minor. Her mother fled to Greece in 1922, while her father, who was a prisoner of war, arrived slightly later during the exchange of populations.

At the age of thirteen, whilst attending night school, Domna Samiou received her first formal musical training from Simon Karas at the Association for the Dissemination of National Music, where she was tutored in Byzantine and folk music, as well as being introduced to the idea of field research in music. Her first professional collaboration was with the National Radio Foundation (E.I.R.), the state-run national radio station of Greece at the time, when she was a member of the Simon Karas choir.

In 1954 she became a full-time employee of the station, working in the National Music Section, in effect the folk music section of E.I.R. Through her work there, she came into contact with the leading traditional musicians of the day, who were part of a great wave of migration from the countryside to Athens. The National Music Section was busy recording them and, as a result, Domna became acquainted with all their various local musical styles. She was herself responsible for supervising records, stage plays and films.

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