THE CHOIR

The Choir "Yannis Mantakas" of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the main activity of the Music Department of the University Student Mensa of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. It was founded in 1953 by Yannis Mantakas (1932-1998) with the aim of cultivating music among the students and the young people of our city in general. However, it went beyond the university’s context, broadened its activities on multiple levels and made a significant contribution to the musical life of Thessaloniki and the whole of Greece, while at the same time had a stable presence abroad, thanks mainly to the intense personality and activity of its founder, whose name it bears today as a sign of honor to his memory. 

After the departure of Yannis Mantakas, he was succeeded by his student, conductor Petros Bekiaridis. From 2016 until today, the choir is under the direction of Erifili Damianou.

The Choir has contributed to the development of choral music in Greece throughout time. It has renewed the repertoire, organized seminars and publications of choral music, and presented for the first time to the Greek public hundreds of choral works of all periods, mainly of the Renaissance, Baroque, but also of the modern era, both Greek and foreign, something that is still a constant pursuit for the choir.