Spiros Delegos
- Doctoral Researcher, Sibelius-Akatemian tohtoriohjelma, Sibelius Academy
- spiros.delegos@uniarts.fi
Publications in the research database (7)
Introduction
musician | ethnomusicologist | music teacher
Doctoral Researcher, DocMus, Sibelius Academy Uniarts Helsinki
Spiros Delegos, born in Patras, Greece, is a doctoral researcher (final phase) at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki (full-time salaried position: 2023-24, 2024-25 & 2025) and a recipient of the Wihuri Foundation grant for 2026. He has been based in Helsinki, Finland, since 2023.
As a doctoral candidate at the DocMus Doctoral School (Research Study Programme with supervisors Markus Mantere & Risto Pekka Pennanen) since 2020, he is working on the final phase of his research project entitled "Heterotopia and Ideology in Interwar Rebetiko."
He holds a Master’s degree (2018) in “Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology” from the Department of Music Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA) and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the University of Patras.
He has studied Balkan and Mediterranean musical traditions on the lavta (lute with microintervals from Istanbul) at the Municipal Conservatory of Patras under the supervision of Christos Tsiamoulis and Theory of "European Classical Music" (diplomas in Harmony & Counterpoint, taught by Vasiliki Philippeou) at the Philharmonic Foundation Conservatory of Patras. He came into contact with Ottoman Music and European classical mandolin by attending private lessons and several seminars-master classes (“Labyrinth”, "Music Village", etc.). He also has an excellent knowledge of the folk guitar and the Greek three-course bouzouki and baglamas.
As a musician (since 1996), he has appeared at musical venues, live concerts, festivals and has been responsible for numerous tributes (“George Katsaros-Theologitis”, "Spiros Peristeris", “Music based on poems: D. Karatzas & A. Fostieris”, etc.) through musical ensembles of rebetiko, traditional, modern and classical styles (“Basso cantini”, “Trikyclo”, “Mantolinata of Patras”, "Vasilis Tsitsanis", etc.) performing on the guitar, mandolin and lavta. He has composed the music for the play “Adespoton” (2015, written by Maria A. Spyropoulou) and he was co-founder and member of the Art Project team "Stalaktites" related to theatre and musical discourse (2015-2016).
He was the founder and the head teacher of the “Urban Greek Popular Music School" (2012-2023) at the Philharmonic Foundation Conservatory of Patras, and was the musical director of the “Urban Popular Music Orchestra” (2016-2020), a large ensemble with string, wind instruments, etc.
He has given an array of musical workshops on makam modality and harmonisation in rebetiko and the urban popular traditions of the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans (Sibelius Academy, 1st Festival of Folk Guitar in Greece, Philharmonic Foundation Conservatory of Patras, Rebetiko Festival Skopelos 2023, etc.).
In a research capacity, he has given multiple conference presentations and published articles, most recently “A Modal Heterotopia: Rethinking Makam Modality and Chordal Harmony in Interwar Rebetiko” (2024) in the ICTMD journal Yearbook for Traditional Music, Cambridge University Press.
He is also the translator and editor of the forthcoming Greek edition (in press, 2026) of Greek Music in America (2019, ed. Tina Bucuvalas, University Press of Mississippi).
His research interests focus primarily on popular music cultures through perspectives that move beyond ethnocentrism and hegemonism.
He is a member of ICTMD, IMS, SEM, Popular Music in Greece: International Research Collective (PMG-IRC), ICTMD Committee for Greece (founding member & secretary 2024–present), Hellenic Musicological Society, and other musicological organisations.
Finally, he was awarded the Arvo Allonen Memorial Fund scholarship in September 2022 and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Grant in October 2025 for his research.