Yiorgos Kaloudis, cellist, lyra performer, improviser and composer, performs regularly in concert halls, museums and festivals around the world. A highly experienced recording artist and multi-instrumentalist, he has collaborated in numerous CD’s, films and Dance-Theatre and Puppet-Theatre productions.

His personal discography consists of his debut solo CD album TRUTH, released in February 2005 by “DNA Label Records”, followed by his second albumON THE WIND, released in September 2009, with the kind support of the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation. Yiorgos Kaloudis’s new album J.S. Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello performed on the 4-string Cretan Lyra will shortly be released, in a World Premiere Recording.

He studied cello at the ATHENAEUM CONSERVATORY in Athens, Greece, his home town, with Claire Demeulenaere, and received his Diploma with distinction. He perfected his technique further with cellist Renato Ripo.  

A scholarship awarded from the FULBRIGHT FOUNDATION in 2002, granted him the opportunity to develop his personal vision and technique on the cello and also to study composition and improvisation in Los Angeles with Ted Greene and James Mahlis.

Since 2005, as influenced by his Cretan background, he has introduced the 4-string Cretan Lyra to his performances and recordings, bringing to it his technical understanding of the cello, as well as the innovative addition of a 4th string, the low C of the cello.

Yiorgos Kaloudis performs his compositions using the live-loop-recording technique. Since 2004, he has formed a unique duet with kanun player Ruth Hill where both artists perform his compositions using the different timbres of the cello, the lyra and the kanun to create instrumental soundscapes of particularly atmospheric ambience, of classical, world and jazz music elements.

He performed his compositions with the group "The Chosen" he formed with the bass-guitar player Sylvan Richardson and the kanun player Ruth Hill, at theManchester Jazz Festival in 2007.

The most important collaborations and biggest influences for him was his very first band, "Occasional Dream" since 1996, the duet "Faros" he formed together with the saxophonist David Lynch since 2002, the duet with the kanun player Ruth Hill since 2004, and the duet "Lemoncello" he formed together with the pianist Sotiris Lemonidis since 2012.

He has collaborated regularly since 2002 with songwriter Alkinoos Ioannidis, as a cello, cretan lyra performer and improviser in various projects. In 2012 they formed a duet, which performs regularly in numerous venues, cathedrals, concert halls and collaborations with symphonic orchestras around the world, namely in England, Scotland, Wales, Russia, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Czech Republic, USA and Canada.

As a 4 string cretan lyra soloist-improviser he has performed with the orchestras:
In November of 2009 with the Academic Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Shostakovich of St. Petersburg and the choir "Lege Artis", at the Conservatory's Glazunov theatre. 
In April of 2010 at the Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal with the Kamerata Europaea and the choir Ernst Senff Choir.
Yiorgos Kaloudis, cellist, lyra performer, improviser and composer, performs regularly in concert halls, museums and festivals around the world. A highly experienced recording artist and multi-instrumentalist, he has collaborated in numerous CD’s, films and Dance-Theatre and Puppet-Theatre productions.