LEADING THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
WITH TALENT AND HARD WORK
Article By Adriana Rubio
Pictures: Courtesy of TKG Group
In January of 2015 Guitar Virtuoso Theodore Kalantzakos from TKG was
Guitarist of the month on this Blog! And three years later he delights us all with
a number of outstanding concerts as he and the band continue to grow at full
speed.
Theodore is
the leader of an amazing trio brothers’ band from Athens, Greece. I had the
opportunity to interview him and talk about the band’s musical projects and
releases on several occasions. And from time to time I also say hello to the
band’s drummer Loukas Kalantzakos who
plays the best combinations of “tempo-touches” without losing the beat power.
It
really is a band where talent is right there, you just can feel it while the
music transports you to incredible places as they dive into ambient jazz and
cinematic sounds. However, there’s a solid metal element with a key presence of progressive-experimental rock in many of the band’s
compositions as they let creativity flow during the songwriting process.
Keyboardist Nick Kalantzakos is without a doubt a very important piece
for the experimental-ambient part.
Now, three years after being
Guitarist of the month on this Blog, Theodore Kalantzakos had the
opportunity to jam with International acclaimed Guitarist Steve Vai after
a guitar seminar which was part of the Alien Guitar Secrets Master Class Tour
on March 20, 2018 at the Art Music School Fakanas in Athens, Greece.
And on July 16, 2018 they had the Scorpions “Once
in a life time” show; with the Athens State Orchestra, Live at Kallimarmaro,
Athens, Greece.
They joined the Athens State Orchestra; Theodore
was in charge of coordinating all the electric instruments to open the show
playing some of Scorpions best compositions (as arranged for the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000).
“Guitarist Rudolf Schenker played “Hurricane” with us;
it was the last composition of our opening act. This was the second time I had
the chance to be on stage with Rudolf Schenker… actually the first, but there
is a virtual one too!!!”
In 2014, Theodore Kalantzakos arranged Rudolf
Schenker’s “Love is the Answer” for the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a
Philippos Pliatsikas (popular Greek singer) & Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
show at Odeon of Herodes Atticus that recorded live and released by EMI.
“Aside from arranging all the compositions, I
played the guitars too. Rudolf had sent us a video of him which was projecting
while we were playing live!”
Here is a video https://youtu.be/G-L4Q-s6lNw from the
live show and this is the live recording https://youtu.be/eINgY7-fdoA .
Theodore and his band TKG Group have a new
full-length album ready to be released titled “Mozart in Color”. The band will present some compositions of the
upcoming at one of the most beautiful theatres in Greece.
“We're going to present some
compositions of our upcoming album "Mozart in Color" at one of the
most beautiful ancient theatres, the "Herodes Atticus Odeon", on
September 21 and 22 as opening act for Prague Philharmonic orchestra”.
As you can see Theodore Kalantzakos
and his band TKG Group are firmly focused
on the road to success which can be achieved only with talent, hard work and perseverance.
Kudos to him and the band! And thank you so much as always for being in
touch! You guys ROCK!
