Dine Doneff - Kostas Theodorou

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Born in West Germany to Macedonian parents 
and raised in the Northern Greek prefecture of Edessa,
Dine Doneff (or Kostas Theodorou, his Greek citizenship name)
has been active as a musician and composer since the mid-eighties.
Faced with the choice between school and music,
he left his home village and fled to Thessaloniki.
Educated his inner soul by exploring life through music,
he became a self taught musician.

By the 90’s he was working as an arranger, ensemble director and producer
on studio recordings. Alternating between touring abroad, he joined the group 
Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonico in 2001, with four albums released by ECM;
From 2002 to 2005 he taught at the Technical Education Institute of Epirus 
and the University of Macedonia. 
Later, under the fictional auspices of ‘no bizz productions’, he became the pivot,
and inspiration, of ninety nine (99), improvised public rehearsal performances 
in a small underground theatre in Thessaloniki from 2005 to 2011 involving onstage 
encounters between Doneff and musicians, dancers, actors, poets and visual artists. 
Interludes of composing for the theatre and silver screen interspersed with forays into
theatre direction and, under the name of Tome Rapovina, directing and editing short films.
From 2014 to 2016, he worked as a composer and actor with the Kammerpiele ,
in Munich and the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and from 2014 he has been living in 
Munich.

As a result of his appearance as an ECM artist, Dine Doneff
together with painter & photographer Fotini Potamia,
proceeds to building up the label “neRED music” 
following a suggestion of Manfred Eicher,
ECM’s founder and producer.
The label’s first release is the album “Rousilvo”,
which will be marketed in cooperation
with ECM Records.


Collaborations with (among others):
 
Danny Hayes, Frank Köllges, Michalis Siganidis,
Ara Dinkjan, Arto Tunçboyaciyan, Petro Lukas Chalkias,
Luis Sclavis, Michel Godard, Sainkho Namtchylak,
Theodosii Spassov, Takis Farazis, Argiris Bakirtzis,
Ziad Rajab, Floros Floridis, Haig Yazdjian, Yannis Thomas,
Christian Reiner, Anja Lechner, Natalia Mann, Luk Perceval...

Selective discography:
  
Nostos, 1999 LYRA 667
Echotopia, 2003 FM 1578
Sumiglia, 2005 ECM 1903
Songs of an other, 2008 ECM 2057
Songs of Thessaloniki, 2015 ECM 2398
Rousilvo, 2018 neRED/1 in cooperation w/ECM

Dine Doneff/ECM Records

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text: Jonathan Smith

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