Vagelis Stefanopoulos devoted himself to music from a very young age studying piano, violin, composition and self tought in electric guitar. He later on went to study classical piano performance under the guidance of acclaimed pianist and professor Yonty Solomon at Trinity College of Music in London UK.

 

During his studies he divided his time between classical piano performance and jazz composition and improvisation. Since his graduation in 2003 he has been working as a session musician with various ensembles spanning from Afro beat and Latin Jazz to straight ahead and from experimental electronic to mainstream pop and crossover projects.

 

Vagelis debut recording named “Jazznovation” was commissioned by indie record label  “The Sound Of Everything” in 2007 and since then he has released four studio albums starting off with a piano trio and leading up to a work for jazz octet and string orchestra. His piano trio album “Sailing on a Marsipus” has earned critical acclaim by jazz journals in Greece and was for a week the no. 1 CD in sales from Greece in the CD baby’ s catalogue in 2012.  With his quintet “Singularity Project” Stefanopoulos has represented Greece in the Athens Jazz festival in 2015 as well as touring in Europe and California, USA. The first two parts of his next album “Idyllwild Suite” were composed for Singularity Project’ s performance in Idyllwild Arts Festival in 2017. For Idyllwild Suite he was awarded a grant by Costopoulos Foundation and the album was released in digital and limited edition vinyl in March 2018. His latest recording “Meditations” is  a solo piano improvisation with the use of electronics and synthesizer.  The album is a poetic approach to meditation musically describing the mind states and incidents one experiences during the act.

 

Over the last few years Vagelis has been touring and gigging with a side project called “Scrap Music” teaming up with various musicians from an array of genres. The concept of Scrap Music is based on the use of a loop station which allows the creation of arrangements and compositions on the spot with out any preconceived forms or rehearsals. The project stands out as a vibrant act that celebrates the joy of improvisation and each show is a different experience in atmosphere and content. For those reasons “Scrap Music” has been attracting a steady following in the booming improvised music Athenian scene.

 

Stefanopoulos has played dozens of festivals and venues including Idyllwild Arts (USA), Mama Jazz (Lithuania), Jamboree Jazz (Barcelona), Amsec (Austria), Technopolis (Athens), Jazzablanca (Morocco)  and has played in jazz clubs in Switzerland, Netherlands, South Africa, Cuba, USA and almost every significant venue in Greece and Cyprus as well as numerous appearances on national Greek TV. 

 

 

Some of the names that Stefanopoulos has contributed with on stage include JD Walter (USA), Athens Big Band, Dave de Rose (UK), Femi Temowo (UK), Kelly Lee Evans (Canada), Debora J. Carter (Holland), Viktorija Pilatovics (Lithuania), Lina Sleibi (Palestine), John Keating (Ireland), Jason Wastor, Andreas Polyzogopoulos, Mike Kapilides, David Lynch, Stavros Lantsias, George Kontrafouris, Yiotis Kioutzoglou, Christos Thivaios and many others.