Stavridis Thanos was born in Langadas, Thessaloniki. He took his first steps in learning accordion at the age of six. He studied music theory and holds degrees in Harmony, Counterpoint and Fugue. He also attended saxophone courses and reached the diploma level. He graduated from School of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a degree in Ethnomusicology. His Graduate Thesis is entitled “Accordion and its technique as used by music troupes of Eastern Rumelia refugees in Greece”.
In his early undergraduate years he began playing accordion professionally at many music stages and haunts of Thessaloniki, performing rebetiko and various other genres of Greek music. During this period he also worked on Greek, and Balkan in general, traditional music, researching how accordion was used either as a solo or an accompaniment instrument. He participated in many folk music festivals both in Greece and abroad.
In 1999 he founded the choir of the Cultural Association of Langadas and he has ever since been conducting it. He works as an accordion teacher for conservatories in Thessaloniki and Athens. He has also given seminars abroad, teaching Greek traditional music. In the summer of 2015 he was a seminary professor of the same subject at the Accordion Festival in Syros Island. Ever since 2010 he teaches accordion as a temporary teaching musician at the Department of Traditional Music of the Technological Educational Institute of Epirus. He is a founding member of the Friends of Jazz Association and the Hellenic Association of Accordion Teachers.
His performance history includes collaborations with numerous artists from both jazz and art (entechno) music genres as well as with various theater groups.
He was a founding member of the musical group “Northern Partners” and they performed in Thessaloniki for about 10 years. Their music style can be described as an unconditional blending of jazz elements with a range of highly expressive sounds that cover the whole field of Greek-Balkan tradition. The World Music Charts ranked their first CD album, “From Jazz to Tradition”, as No. 367 among 1005 world music recordings for 2005. He also cofounded “Cabaret Balkan”, one of the first Greek bands that worked on mixing Balkan sounds with modern electro pop-rock music styles.
The musical group “dRom” is his latest project. They approach Balkan music in an extra jazzy way.
Over the last few years he also took part as a session musician in many recordings and concerts. In 2009 he was credited as an arranger of a part of the CD album “They’re right about the moon” released by George Kalogirou. In 2011 he arranged “Nourie ie bolna legnala”, a CD album with songs of Pomak villages in the Greek region of Rhodope. This was the first official release of Pomak traditional songs in Greek discography. In May of 2013 he contributed in the arrangement and the music direction of the CD album “Love, I love you” with music by Chrysostomos Stamoulis. In January of 2014 he is credited among others for the arrangement and the music editing of “What the fox says” with music by Evanthia Reboutsika and lyrics by Helen Zioga based on Aesop’s Fables.
In June of 2016 Kyklos Records released his first personal CD album, “A suitcase full of dreams”, a recording of his own music.
Artists he collaborated with:
Evanthia Reboutsika, Alkistis Protopsalti, Sokratis Malamas, Thanasis Papakonstantinou, Matoula Zamani, Makis Seviloglou, Gerasimos Andreatos, Manolis Mitsias, Theodosii Spassov, Peter Ralchev, Kostas Theodorou, Floros Floridis, Pantelis Staikos and many more.