From the Greek mountains to Manhattan: folk music icon Petroloukas Chalkias honored after death

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece is honoring the late clarinetist Petroloukas Chalkias, whose hypnotic, note-bending performances over the course of more than 70 years made him a hero of mountain folk music.

Chalkias, who died at 90 over the weekend, lay in state Wednesday at the Athens Cathedral — a rare honor typically reserved for prime ministers and religious leaders.

As pallbearers emerged through the doors in a chapel next to the cathedral, carrying the coffin, silence descended. Mourners then clapped and shouted “immortal” as musicians played folk tunes. It was a solemn prelude to his funeral which will take place in the rugged highlands of Epirus, in northwest Greece, where he first took up the clarinet as a boy of 11.

Greek President Constantine Tassoulas earlier this week described Chalkias as a “legendary figure.”

Epirus’ folk music, slowly unfolding and often centered around the clarinet, is steeped in improvisation, with its wanderings inviting comparisons to rural blues and jazz. It’s one of the reasons that, while not so distinguished as a recording artist, Chalkias’ live performances made him a household name for Greeks young and old alike.

His style evolved after settling in New York as a young man, joining a wave of musicians who emigrated along with other Greeks to escape the hardship of postwar poverty. Chalkias found an unlikely second stage: dimly-lit clubs filled with Greek emigres and curious outsiders. Among those drawn to his performances were jazz legends Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong.

Musicians paying their respects on Wednesday praised Chalkias for his generosity with his time in helping fellow artists. “I was a young woman when I started out and I was incredibly lucky to have him support me,” folk singer Giota Griva said. “His influence was immense. He was an artist who will never leave us.”

Born Petros Loukas Chalkias, the musician was the son and grandson of clarinet players. He was raised with the region’s rich tradition of live music — an essential part of village festivals, celebrations, and mourning rituals.

Discouraged at first by a family wary of the musician’s path, the young Chalkias fashioned his own makeshift clarinet from a hollow reed, carving its finger holes. By his early teens, his playing — raw and instinctive, but undeniably gifted — was good enough to earn him a spot on national radio.

Chalkias spent nearly 20 years in the US and raised a family there, but said he always intended to return to Greece. He did so in 1979, performing live across the country and reconnecting with Delvinaki, the red-roofed mountain village of his birth near Greece’s border with Albania.

Delvinaki bore deep scars from the devastations of World War II and the civil war that followed. Chalkias, like many of his generation, grew up with interrupted schooling and little formal training. His music was learned by ear and memory, and never performed using sheet music.

“In the hearts of all Greeks, he stands as the foremost ambassador of our folk song tradition,” President Tassoulas, also from Epirus, said in a statement. “Though Petros Loukas Chalkias has departed this life, his voice has not fallen silent –- nor will it ever.”

Chalkias died in Athens. His family did not announce the cause of his death. His funeral will be held at the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Delvinaki on Thursday.

He is survived by a son and a daughter.