Synergy Trio

Helen Valente was born in Athens in 1980. She grew up in a musical family, both her parents were musicians in the Athens State Orchestra. After a decade of classical music studies she moves in Cologne, Germany in 2002 where she begins her musical studies at the jazz song in the Music Academy of Cologne in Germany (Musikhochschule Köln), having the teachers Anette von Eichel, Susanne Schneider and Joachim Ulrich. She also attended seminars in the field of jazz with: John Taylor, Celine Rudolph, Judy Niemack, Meredith d Àmbrosio, Kara Johnstad and Torun Eriksen, Gretchen Parlato and JD Walter. From 2002 to 2004 she participated as a singer in the Bigband of the University of Cologne. In 2007 she finished her university studies in Cologne with honors. She created the ensemble “Alchemy” with guitarist Nonta Lada and presented their own compositions jazz with influences from traditional Greek rebetiko music while touring in Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Greece. In 2007 she returned to Athens where she participated actively in the field of jazz music scene, playing with Pantelis Benetatos, Dimitrti Kalantzis, Costas Constantinou, Dimitri Chuck, Yannis Stavropoulos, Peter Klampanis, Giaxoglou Kostas, Spyros Manessis, Andrea Polyzogopoulos, Yannis Papanastasiou, Sami Amiri Perikles Trivoli, George Trantalidis, Dimitri Vassilakis, Lefteris Christofis, Dimitris Pantelis, Sotiris Ntouvas, Alex Foster, Michael Küttner, Florian Weber, Bodek Janke, Gilad Hekselman and others. She is also involved in teaching phonetics. She has appeared at jazz festivals Kalamata and Zakynthos, an the Ippokratia of Municipality of Kos and in spaces like Gazarte, Parafono, Art Gallery, Bacaro, President, Hilton, Costa Navarino etc.

Kostas Giaxoglou was born and raised in Sparta, Greece. He started playing greek folk music for house parties and gatherings. He got into jazz music when he started studying at Athens University in 1998. He studied with Sylvios Syrros and George Kontrafouris in Athenaeum music school. He played professionally with greek soul funk big band called “Savra ton Vassilikon Dromon” and greek latin band Apurimac. He moved to Amsterdam where he studied until 2008 in the Conservatorium of Amsterdam surrounded by exquisite musicians and abled teachers where he got his Bachelor in Μusic in Jazz Piano Performance. Projects in Amsterdam included the multi–ethnic Salsa–Jazz Band “Los Borrachos Del Barrio”, latin jazz Quartet “Influenca Comun”, and vocal quartet with Zosja El Rhazi amongst others. In September 2008 he moves to Athens. Since September 2009 he is a piano teacher in the State Music School of Kalamata and teaches modern and jazz piano. He has been involved with groups: Poly Quartet, band led by trumpet player–composer Andreas Polyzogopoulos, Vassilios Stefanpoulos double bass, Sotiris Ntouvas drums, Pocket Band with Aggeliki Marinou (vocals) and Yannis Papanastassiou (saxophone), Makis Mpoukalis (accoustic bass) and Thanos Hadjiantoniou (drums), Synergy Trio with Eleni Valenti (vocals), Marios Valinakis (saxophone) Miyagi’s Dream with Dimitris Tasenas and Konstantinos Kokkinos, Freak Brothers Band, a 10 piece Funk, Soul, Jazz cover band from Kalamata led by the Koutivas Brothers, Vassilis and Antonis.