The Tsakirian workshop: a century of crafting rebetiko’s soul through generations of luthiers in Athens

Omonoia Square, in the northern part of Athens city centre, arouses various emotions. For some, it arouses anxiety – especially at night; while for others, it brings fascination. For the latter, it offers a cultural panopticon, as behind the fountains and places of tourist hustle and bustle, an image of real life emerges, sometimes in its darkest shades. It is hard to find a better metaphor for the essence of rebetiko, music woven from the unfortunate stories of those who sang and played it in the 19th-century coffee shops of Istanbul and the ancient Greek city of Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey), in Greek prisons and the suburbs of Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki. Leaving this stuffy heart of the Greek capital towards Sokratous Street, there is a palisade on the left at 5 Aristotelous Street, with a sign reading “Music Workshop. K. Tsakirian” and guitars of various sizes – six- and eight-string bouzoukis, bağlamas, tzouras and mandolins – hanging behind bars in the window.

Their story began in 1922, when the final act of the Greco-Turkish War that started in 1919 was to set Smyrna on fire, with the Turkish recapturing the city and uprooting Hellenism from Anatolia. Agop Tsakirian was one of many from Smyrna who became refugees, moving to Piraeus, Greece in 1922. There, he learnt to build instruments such as the oud, lute and lyre from his brother-in-law, the talented luthier Aram Papazian. Agop took over Papazian’s workshop in 1924, following his teacher’s death, and passed on the luthier bug to his son, Onnik, who duly started his own workshop. At first, he was based in the town of Korydallos before moving to Athens and a house at 3 Aristotelous Street. Onnik quickly gained a reputation as the best luthier of his time. The famous black bouzouki played by the outstanding singer, instrumentalist and rebetiko/laïkó composer Manolis Chiotis and heard in many Greek films of the 1960s, was his. In 1970, he emigrated to the US with his family, where the Fender Guitar Company hired him as a specialist. Once the family had all received their green cards they moved to New York where Onnik opened a workshop in Astoria, making instruments for the likes of Yiannis Stamatiou (Sporos), Bebis Stergiou, Argiris Vamvakaris and Stelios Kazantzidis.

Onnik’s son Karolos took on the mantle once his father died prematurely. He moved back to Greece from the US in 1993, though with the original family workshop already rented, he set up shop at 5 Aristotelous Street. Karolos continues the tradition by building string instruments of the bouzouki family, laoutos and classical guitars. He is also a musician and has mastered playing the bouzouki himself.

When I visit the workshop, I’m doing so at the behest of Murat Ertel, the iconic leader of Turkish band BaBa ZuLa, who has asked me to deliver a package from Istanbul. A young woman answers the door when I arrive. Her name is Tanya, Karolos’ daughter. A philosophy and history of science graduate at the University of Athens, she has been accompanying her father in the workshop since she was 14 and continues the family tradition. The instruments she has made can be found in France, Brazil and have been played by the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. Kostas Doumouliakas, a hugely talented contemporary rebetiko soloist, uses one bouzouki she crafted.

In stuffy, crowded Athens, the Tsakirian workshop seems almost mystical. High-quality instruments are crafted with great concentration. A hundred years after rebetiko came to Athens, one of the most respected luthiers is a woman: Tanya. Although so much has changed, the melodies that came to Greece from Anatolia still feed the nostalgic souls of those who perform music on instruments made by fathers, sons and, now, daughters. And their sound resonates further than ever, with Murat Ertel playing a tzouras bought from the Tsakirians on the latest BaBa ZuLa album. The Tsakirian’s instruments are still highly sought after.