Stelios Karaminas

He was born in Patra, but his origins are from the island of Samos. He grew up in Athens Greece.

At the age of 11 he started to learn guitar on his own. During his high school years he took classical guitar lessons and started to explore the music of many pop and rock groups of the time. He studied Electrical Engineering in the National Polytechnic University of Athens but he also got involved with the music scene in Greece.

He worked in nightclubs, joined and played with various groups of different musical styles, participated in various recording sessions and concerts including a large tour all around Greece with singer Antonis Kalogiannis and composer Dimitris Lagios in 1983.

In 1989 he came to study Commercial Music Arranging at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was introduced to the Greek local music scene, performed in various venues and became part of the Avgerinos band.

In 1991 he earned his degree and went back to Greece where he worked full time as a music teacher, music copyist, jingle writer, arranger, composer and performer. He has worked with distinguished and world renowned Greek composers like Manos Xatzidakis (Orchestra of the Colors), Yiannis Markopoulos, Xristos Leontis, Nikos Kypourgos and performed with the Orchestra of National Radio and TV (ERT).

In 1996 he performed as a guitarist and vocalist alongside world renowned singer Marinella at the REX music hall in Athens and kept working with her until the end of 1998, while they toured all over Greece including her first big concerts at the Megaro of Music and at the Herodeio Theater in Athens.

After that he decided to return to his engineering roots and moved back to Boston, Massachusetts with his family. His full time job is in Database Marketing Solutions / Information Technology field and he is currently a Technical Director at Epsilon, in Wakefield, Massachusetts.

Since 2000 he has been a founding member of the orfeas band, and since 2011, also a member of the Greek Music Ensemble, with numerous performances in the greater New England area and other US cities.

Performing solo or with his fellow musicians is, and will always be a very important part of his life, and one that keeps him young at heart!