Καλλιτεχνικός Σύλλογος Δημοτικής Μουσικής Δόμνα Σαμίου

Born in 1931 in the village of Komboti, close to Arta, Epirus. A member of the prominent Soukas clan; his father and his great-grandfather played the clarinet and his grandfather the violin. His repertoire mainly included traditional songs of Epirus and of Central Greece.

At the age of five he learned the basics on the lute, from the acclaimed lute teacher Gerasimos Lalos and became a member of the family music group. By the age of twelve he could play the guitar, the santur, and the cymbal. At the same time he began playing the clarinet. In his twenties he devoted himself to playing the clarinet and at the age of twenty-eight he moved to Athens.

He had participated in many traditional and folk music recordings – he recorded more than four thousand songs, two hundred of which written by him. He had appeared in numerous concerts, musical events, festivals, as well as in radio and television shows, and had collaborated with renowned Greek musicians.

Vassilis Soukas died in 1993. His wife donated his clarinet to the Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments.

Sources: Yiorgos E. Papadakis’ archive, www.musipedia.gr