Warm Stories for Winter and Christmas

Elli Giannaki was born near a quiet lake in Germany and grew up in Athens next to a busy thoroughfare, which is probably why she has a deep appreciation of the contrasts and timbres that hide in fairy tales. She took music lessons at an early age, but eventually trained as a kindergarten teacher. She worked sometimes in conservatoires, choirs and music scenes, sometimes in kindergartens, sometimes in prisons and refugee camps and sometimes in Rom settlements. Over time her steps took her to England and the International School of Storytelling. There she came across the wisdom of fairy tales and the art of storytelling, her imagination soared and at long last she matured! Since then she has been travelling around the world to attend fairytale seminars, and returning with a suitcase full of ideas, stories and songs which she shares in her workshops and shows of storytelling and music. This year she has the pleasure of animating "let me tell you a story", the intergenerational storytelling workshop of the Greek National Opera's Educational & Social Actions, addressed to grandparents with their grandchildren. She works for the 62nd Kindergarten of Athens and the Polyphonica multicultural children's choir.

Nikos Karydis was born in Athens and went into song writing from a young age. He studied classic trumpet under Panagiotis Balamos of the Athens State Orchestra, and continued with a study of the traditional Balkan repertory for brass instruments. In terms of music theory he studied at the Department of Musical Studies and obtained a degree in Composition from the Municipal Conservatory of Kalamata under Fani Kossona. His works have been performed by the Hellenic Group of Contemporary Music and the REV/OHM Ensemble. He was taught electronic music production at SAE Athens, and studied Csound under Nikos Mylonas. As a composer he now explores the traditions of French spectral music and the fusion of natural and electronic sound. He has worked as composer and performer for stage productions of the National Theatre. He has also written music and orchestrated pieces for the "Agia Fanfara" band of brass instruments.

Born in Athens in 1983 to a Swiss father and Greek mother, Elsa Kundig attended the Music High School of Pallini, majoring in the cello. She is a graduate of the Dept of Psychology of Pantion University, with a postgraduate degree in ethnomusicology from London's SOAS University. She has trained at the International School of Storytelling in Sussex, England. In recent years she lives and works in Athens, promoting her vision of empowering communities through music and storytelling. She has conducted numerous seminars of music and narration for all ages. She has worked with the Polyphonica multicultural children's choir (teaching and conducting for 7 years), the Caravan Project, the Rosarte children's choir and Μake Some Noiz, and has run programmes for institutions like the Greek National Opera and the Onassis Stegi. She has also worked as music educator in preschool education. 
In the last four years she conducts the Astra Poulia community choir, and since 2024 she works as a psychotherapist-graduate of the Wilhelm Reich Centre for Psychotherapy & Counselling.