Nikephoros Kantouniares

KANTOUNIARĒS (NAUTOUNIARĒS), Nikēphoros. b. Chios, 1750-75; d. 1830s. Born on the island of Chios, Greece, Kantouniarēs undertook a musical apprenticeship in Constantinople under the patriarchal cantor (psaltēs) Iakobos Peloponnesios* (Protopsaltes) (d. 1800). He spoke Greek, Turkish, Arabic, and maybe Romanian, French and Italian. Kantouniarēs was an important psaltēs, a composer of both ecclesiastical and secular music, a pedagogue, scribe, and exegete. As archdeacon of Antioch, Kanoutniarēs was active in Damascus, Constantinople and Iashi, the capital of Moldavia. In the early 19th century he was based at Golia Monastery, Iashi, where he taught Byzantine music in the Holy Metropolitan...