According to a post of the “Chronis Aidonidis” Music Archive, the Lord of the Thracian tradition passed away at the age of 95.

Chronis Aidonidis was born in Karoti Didymoteicho on September 23, 1928. The son of Priest Christos and Chrysanthis Aidonidis, he is the second of his five siblings.

In Karoti, he spends his childhood and teenage years and it is there that he learns his first songs and is introduced to the world of traditional music, first by his mother, and then by the local musicians who played at his village festivals.

Still a student, he was taught Byzantine music by his father and later by the cantor Michalis Kefalokoptis. When he finished the eight-grade high school in Didymoteicho, he was appointed as a community teacher in Petrota of Evros. In 1950, he settled with his parents in Athens, where he continued and completed his studies in Byzantine music, at the Hellenic Conservatory, near the great teacher Theodoros Hatzitheodorou.

In February of the same year, he was hired at the Sismanoglio Hospital, where he works as an accountant, while at the same time completing his studies in accounting at the “Pyrsos” school. He would remain in this position until his retirement in 1988.

In 1953, the great folklorist Polydoros Papachristodoulou will seek him out and suggest that he participate in his show “Thrakii Antilaloi”, on the state radio, in order to present to the world a Thracian repertoire unknown until then. Although at first Chronis Aidonidis will hesitate, telling him “I know these songs, I love them, but… I’m ashamed to say them”, the words of encouragement and the advice of the great folklorist will influence him and urge him to finally dedicate the whole rest of his life in the effort to promote and spread traditional music.

The “Thracian Antilalos” who, before Chronis Aidonidis, hosted only 30-40 songs of Eastern Thrace, now, with his voice, the world knows for the first time the songs of Western and Northern Thrace and many more of Eastern Thrace, which until then had never been heard beyond the borders of Thrace. Later he participates in the choir of Simon Karras, while from 1957, he undertakes a regular weekly radio show, presenting the musical treasure of Thrace.

At the same time, he still takes part in many concerts throughout Greece and records. The Thracian song with its masterful and melodious voice was loved by every corner of Greece. But she has traveled with him to America, Australia, many countries of the former Soviet Union and Europe. That is why he was chosen to represent our country in the two biggest events of recent years: in the international televised celebratory program welcoming the new millennium, in 2000, where Greece welcomed the new millennium with his voice, in Sounio and in 2004, when he opened the Closing Ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games, with the moving sit-in song: “Friends welcome me”, spreading the sacred music of Thrace to every corner of the world.

His enormous work can be summed up in four words: Rescued – Formed – Created – Taught He rescued the musical tradition of Thrace as he experienced it, but also as he was taught by his beautiful mother Chrysanthi.

All this musical wealth of Thrace was recorded by the leading folklorist Pantelis Kavakopoulos, who in one of his books “Songs of Northwest Thrace” states that in the years 1951-1952 he recorded more than a hundred songs of northern, eastern and western Thrace from Chroni Aedonidis and his mother. Today Chronis Aidonidis has a rich discography (more than 500 songs), with the most beautiful songs of Thrace. He recorded most of these songs twice, as, as he said, these songs were recorded for the first time in Athens, mainly in the 60s-70s, under bad conditions with time pressure for performances, with few financial possibilities of production and mainly with the collaboration of excellent professional musicians who were from other regions of Greece and therefore do not express and do not represent the color, style and diversity presented in Thrace, nor can they be compared to the original material by local musicians. He shaped the Thracian song.

Chronis Aidonidis, raised with the sounds of Byzantine music and a cantor himself, took all this precious material and shaped it with absolute respect for the sounds and ways of our Byzantine musical tradition. “Thracian Song – Byzantine trope” is the name of one of his records, a title that includes all of his personal contribution to the formation and qualitative upgrading of our traditional music. Created.

Chronis Aidonidis himself wrote dozens of songs which, having the style, color and rhythms of the Thracian musical tradition, passed and were integrated into it, with the result that today many of us do not know that they are his creations. We mention the songs as an example: Friends welcome me, Vasilepsen Avgerinos, Lygeri Thrakiotissa, My dark face, A good neighbor girl, Open Lenio the door, Tonight the starlight, To tall tender girls, Kato ton kambo ton platy, Vangelis Kapetanis and many more but. All these songs that he created he left to join our musical tradition without his name, as a creator, since, as he writes on all his records, “The songs are traditional and belong to the Greek people”.

In recent years, he was forced to declare them as his own creations, when some people taking advantage of the creator’s anonymity proceeded either to appropriate them or to musically and morally unacceptable arrangements. Teach. The most important part of his offering was teaching. He has taught from time to time at various Conservatories and Institutions, but what he and all of us considered as his top contribution is the creation in 1996 in the Municipality of Alexandroupoli, of the Center for the Study of the Musical Tradition of Thrace, Asia Minor and the Black Sea. There, in addition to the remarkable music recordings that were made, he also operated the Traditional Music Workshop, where he taught traditional singing, coming two to four times a month to Alexandroupolis. This Workshop, until 2010 when it operated, was a valuable ark for saving and spreading our musical tradition both in singing and in the teaching of our traditional instruments. He taught by his word but also by his example, modesty and humility in life and in the loft.

In 2002, listening to the love and desire of the world to save all this valuable work of his and to be honored alive for it, we created in Alexandroupoli the Archive of Musicological Tradition “Chronis Aedonidis”, of which he is also the honorary president, where, among the other purposes of its statutes, we try to continue the teaching of our elementary music in the style, color and manner taught to us by our beloved teacher.

Throughout these years, there are countless distinctions and honors that Chronis Aidonidis has received for his contribution to Greek culture, from state bodies, from Metropolises, as well as from many municipalities throughout Greece and cultural associations in our country and in abroad. A top honor is the awarding to Chronis Aedonidis of the Office of “Lord Hymnist of the Holy Church of Christ the Great” by the Ecumenical Patriarch Mr. Bartholomew on 29-11-2010, following a joint proposal by the Metropolitans of Didymoteichos Mr. Damaskinos and Mr. Alexandroupolis. Anthimou. The rendering of the Great Cross by the Blessed Archbishop of Athens Christodoulos, the rendering of the Great Cross by the Archbishop of Athens Ieronymos and the awards by two Presidents of the Hellenic Republic also stand out.

An important part of the personal, family and artistic archive of Chronis Aedonidis is preserved today in the offices of the “Chronis Aedonidis” Musicological Tradition Archive and is accessible to anyone who wishes to study his life and work, as well as a part of the honors and his discography has been donated to the Holy Metropolises of Alexandroupolis and Didymoteicho. We should of course say that most of this archive, and at least until 2002 when the association of Chronis Aidonidis was active, was collected and saved by his wife Fotini. And referring to his beloved wife Fotini, we should say that the most important gift that God gave to Chroni Aidonidis is not his voice, it is his wife. A partner who at every moment of their life supported him personally and artistically and until today, with many and important health problems herself, all her meaning, wishes and prayers were for her beloved Chronis.

Finally, it is worth noting that in fulfillment of his promise to his priest father, Chronis Aidonidis has built at his own expense a small Church in Karoti Didymoteicho dedicated to the Prophet Elias, which serves, among others, the cemetery of Karoti Didymoteicho.