Grammy award winning producer, writer and ethnomusicologist Christopher C. King was presented with an honorary Greek citizenship during a ceremony that was held at the Prime Ministers offices this week with Ministry of Interior’s Secretary General for Citizenship, Athanasios Balermpas.
King is best known for making the traditional music of Epirus and its famous dirges’ known all around the world.
Born and raised in southwest Virginia, King studied philosophy at Radford University and over the course of the last ten years has researched the tradition of ‘Greek demotika songs’, especially in Epirus.
In 2018, W.W. Norton published his book “Lament from Epirus: An Odyssey into Europe’s Old Surviving Folk Music,” and in the book, King, who is now a permanent resident of Konitsa, writes about music as a lament, as a lullaby and consolation and as an integral part of joy and revelry.
The book was named one of the top ten books of 2018 by the Wall Street Journal, and he has presented his work at the New York Public Library, the Gennadius Library of Athens as well as the Odeon Conservatoire in Athens, among other venues.
Source: Ekathimerini
