Lara Eidi

Born in Athens to Lebanese –Canadian parents, Lara Eidi has always been influenced by her multicultural background- listening to the Woodstock scene of the 60’s from the age of ten and simultaneously traditional Arabic, Greek and Irish song. She began taking classical piano lessons at the age of 9,  and studied classical music at Odeo Kodaly till the age of 17, whilst starting to perform at her school and various concerts, one of which included the Kodaly Choir in the 1996 Megaron Mousikis production of Carmen. It wasn’t until after she completed her studies  and went to Scotland for her Masters Degree that she decided to pursue music . She started gigging around pubs in Edinburgh , to return to Greece in 2008, to which she was fortunate enough to be involved in the ‘CineMaria’ production at the Megaro with Maria Farandouri, working alongside singers such as Karen Solomon ( whom she had trained with for 3 years as a modern vocalist). She then sang as a lead jazz vocalist for the Gypsy Swing Quintet ‘Hot Club de Grece’, and soon after for a short but productive period worked and recorded as a singer, guitarist and pianist with the indie band Leon,She also gigged as a solo artist acoustically around Athens, and it was then she started writing her own songs, and compositions. Simultaneously she took up classical training with Nina Kaloutsa ,opening up doors to another direction in music. She  composed music for Aliki Tsilgari's Short Animated entry into the London Film Festival, as well as her song, "Refuge", that is to be used for a national Greek environmental campaign( Militos Technologies). 
She recently performed at the Vinifest of Beirut Lebanon in October, where she was happy to share the stage with great musicians such as renowned guitarist Guilio Tampalini, the Lebanese-French Choir group En-Fa-Mi, ( led under the French Director Oscar Sisto). She performed, accompanying herself on the piano and guitar, works from the 60’s folk and blues scene ( Dylan , Gershwin) up till the 90’s classic rock ( Chapman, Dion).Also, she gave a small recital of jazz standards as part of a music workshop at the private studio of Maro Theodorakis.

Her song Forgive was a quarter finalist for internet competition for original song, YouBloom music awards. She is now working on her debut solo album, which is a combination of all styles which Lara Eidi has honed in her songwritting: folk, indie, jazz layering and folk-rock, and playing at European Music Day and the AThens Fringe Festival with Fivos Zitis on guitar, and Stavros Parginos on cello..