Vasilis Kostas

Vasilis Kostas, recently nominated for a Grammy Award in the United States, is a lute player, composer, and educator hailing from Epirus, Greece. With a master’s degree from Berklee College of Music, he has collaborated with renowned musicians such as the award-winning pianist Danilo Pérez and has performed at major venues and festivals, including Carnegie Hall and the Montreal Jazz Festival. He has won two prestigious awards, the ‘Forty Under 40’ from the Greek America Foundation in New York and the ‘Artist Fellowship in the Traditional Arts’ from the state of Massachusetts, for his valuable contribution to the promotion of Epirus music in the United States. He has released two albums as a duo with Petroloukas Halkias, which capture their creative collaboration and innovative clarinet and lute dialogues. His recent work, “Kalesma” for orchestra and lute, was presented at the Parthenon in Nashville, USA, in collaboration with the Chatterbird Orchestra. Vasilis Kostas is artistic director of the ‘Epilekto Epirus Ensemble’ of the Holy Metropolis of Ioannina and the New England Greek Orchestra of the Anatoliama organization in Boston, and from September 2025, he will teach Epirus music at the Hellenic College Holy Cross in the USA.