The first breath

Saturday, February 21, 2026
19:00
George Hadjinikos Hall, Horto South Pelion
Entrance: 10€

voice: Polyxeni Tsouka
oboe, English horn: Isidora Kopsida
piano: Eleni Kouti

From the romantic Europe of Brahms and Schumann to the subtle nuances of Ravel and the contemplative land of Konstantinidis, songs that speak of love, loss, and rebirth.
The voice, the oboe or sometimes the English horn and the piano on an inner journey – a quiet breath of the soul, where poetry meets sound.

Polyxeni Tsouka was born in Athens in 1978. She first became involved with music in her childhood at the Volos Ellis Adam Music School, where she studied piano and the Orff system.
She is a musicologist, a graduate of the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a singer (soprano), a graduate of the Department of Monody of the Athens Conservatory from the class of Chara Savino, while she also studied melodramatics with the great Greek baritone Kostas Paschalis.
She has participated in classical singing seminars with Aris Christofellis (baroque opera and French opera), Rainer Hoffmann (German Lied), Giorgos Hatzinikos (Bach interpretation and Mozart recitative), Antonis Papakonstantinou, Panagiotis Adam, Maria Georgakaratou, Irini Tsirakidou, Sybilla Rubens (solo parts of J.S.Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and participation in a concert with the Gächinger Kantorei choir conducted by Helmut Rilling), Fani Zafeiriou, etc.
She has worked at times as a substitute teacher in a private elementary school in Volos, but also in public elementary schools in Magnesia, as well as in the Music Schools of Volos and Larissa.
He also worked as a chorister of the “Fons Musicalis” Choir (directed by K. Konstantaras) and the Choir of the Greek Festival/Athens Festival (directed by A. Kontogeorgiou) with participation in performances of works such as Mahler’s 8th Symphony (in collaboration with the Mahler Youth Orchestra), Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (in collaboration with the European Union Youth Orchestra), Holst’s Planets, Charpentier’s Te Deum, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, Manolis Kalomiris’s Leventis Symphony, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, R.Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, Iani Xenaki’s Oresteia, etc. Also, in works by E. Karaindrou, G. Markopoulos, etc., as well as in collaborations with artists such as Savvopoulos, Domna Samiou, Dalaras, Galani, Protopsaltis, Farantouri, Arvanitakis, Alkinoos Ioannidis, etc.
She has been a member of the Polyphonic Choir of the Municipality of Volos (directed by Yannis Karkalas) and has sung in children’s book presentations and in children’s camps.
She is a student of Byzantine music at the School of Byzantine Music of the Holy Metropolis of Demetrias.

Isidora Kopsida was born and raised in Lefkada. At the age of six, she began piano and theory lessons at the Hellenic Conservatory and a little later oboe lessons at the “Lefkada Philharmonic Society”.
She studied with a scholarship at the Athens Conservatory, in the class of the distinguished Claude Chieulet, receiving an Oxyavlous diploma with the grade “Excellent unanimously and First prize unanimously”.
She attended a two-year postgraduate course in English Horn with the same professor, as well as seminars and lessons with S. Fuchs, T. Indermuehle, C. Schneider, F. Thouand, L. Pellerin, Ph. Mahrenholz, D. Vamvas and Martin Frutiger (E. Horn).
She also studied advanced music theory with Giorgos Diamantis (harmony, counterpoint).
She completed her studies at the Music Academy-Hochschule of Basel, Switzerland with prf. Omar Zoboli. She has collaborated with the Athens State Orchestra, the Greek National Opera, the Athens Symphony Orchestra, the “Sinfonietta Athens”, the Athens Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of Athens and as a soloist with the Psychiko Chamber Orchestra. She is a member of the Athens Philharmonic. Her solo activity began in February 2008, taking part with an Oxyavlou recital in the 20th concert cycle “The Young for the Young” at the Philippos Nakas Hall. She has given recitals and concerts in various cities in Greece and abroad (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, France, Austria, Cyprus, Hungary, Germany). In 2009, a special juncture brought her together musically with pianist Marios Kazas, and since then the two artists have been a stable duo, presenting both works from the classical repertoire, for oboe/English horn and piano, but especially lesser-known works, which they often perform in their first pan-Hellenic performance. Among others, an English horn recital with works in their first pan-Hellenic performance (the 1st English horn recital in our country), “Capriccia for oboe and piano” and works in dance form from the Baroque era to the present day (in the hall of the “Parnassos” Music and Philology Association, the Folklore Museum of Aegina, the Papastrateio Megaron of Agrinio, the Malliaropoulio Municipal Theater of Tripoli, etc.). They have appeared in concerts in Athens and other cities in Greece.
In June 2010, within the framework of the Erasmus program, he collaborated as solo oboe with the “Orchestra Accademica Internazionale” of the “Conservatorio Cimarosa” in Avellino, Italy.
Two years later, she attended oboe courses at the Summer Music Academy of Nice in France with Fabien Thouand. She performed the world premiere of the work “Five Cares for Oboe and Piano”, from the classical compositions of Yannis Markopoulos. In March 2013, after qualifying, she was invited to Doha by the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, which held an international competition and participated in the final round of the orchestra’s auditions for the position of solo cor anglais.
She graduated from the Department of European Cultures of the School of Humanities of the Hellenic Open University. From 2015 to 2021 she lived and worked in Zurich, studying alongside Martin Frutiger.
In 2016 and 2018, he was elected a member of the board of directors of the Society of Greek Scientists in Switzerland (SEEEL).

Eleni Kouti was born in Larissa. She began her piano studies at the age of 6, at the National Conservatory of Larissa. She received a piano degree and a piano diploma with the grade of “Excellent unanimously”, in the class of Professor Vangelis Portokalis. She is a graduate of the Department of Music Studies of the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and holds an Integrated Master from the same department.
From 1999 to 2015, she studied with the conductor and pianist Giorgos Hatzinikos, at the annual summer seminars on “Concept and Origins of Musical Interpretation”, in Horto, Pelion. She attended piano and chamber music seminars with Nikos Astrinidis, Stella Dimitova, Dimitris Ioannou and Leonidas Kavakos. She has taken part in the World Symposium “Carl Orff”, in the seminar “Word, Movement, Music” of the internationally renowned choreographer Zouzou Nikoloudis, as well as in seminars on Artistic Education and Music Education.
For many years she worked as a piano accompanist in the Choirs of the Municipality of Pylaia, Thessaloniki, Prefecture of Thessaloniki “Korais”, “Yiannis Mantakas” of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and was a member of the Musical Group of Traditional Music “Music Polytropo”. She works as an accompanist in the solo instrument classes at the Municipal Conservatory of Larissa, in the monody classes of the Thessalian Music School of Larissa and in the choir of the Larissa Philomous Club, as well as at the Music School of Elassona as a piano teacher.
She has participated with numerous ensembles in many chamber music concerts in Greece and abroad (Belgium, Germany, Spain), has taken part in video and audio recordings for local television and radio stations, as well as theatrical productions. Her article “G. Hatzinikos” has been published in the journal of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. “Musicotropies”.
She worked as a permanent piano teacher at the Serres Music School, while she now holds the same position at the Larissa Music School. She implements cultural program cycles with groups of students, on topics related to music and the arts in general. She is responsible for the Musical Theater Ensemble, as well as the archive of cultural activities of the Larissa Music School. She regularly appears in concerts with important works of the chamber music repertoire and is a founding member of the Vernissage ensemble.