JAK Trio unites three longtime collaborators and friends — Alexandros Arkadopoulos (clarinet), Yann Keerim (piano), and Kostas Meretakis (percussion) — in a project that combines the depth of traditional music with the harmonic language of European jazz.
Clarinetist Alexandros Arkadopoulos is considered one of the most influential traditional clarinet soloists in Greece. Pianist Yann Keerim has developed over the past decades a personal sound that reflects both his classical training and his love for jazz and neoclassical improvisation. Percussionist Kostas Meretakis possesses a deep rhythmic language that unites his Thracian roots with the folk traditions of the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The three soloists connect, improvise, and create original suites inspired by emblematic traditional pieces (such as the Epirotic Berati). They bring the Macedonian gaida alongside Erik Satie, and Asia Minor melodies alongside Domenico Scarlatti. They record authentic compositions in tzourtzouna rhythm in the studio.
They share a common understanding of the role that each individually, and all three as an ensemble, must play in the evolution of the music they love — and for this reason, they let the classical piano, the traditional clarinet, and the percussion create a new, fresh sound and a new perspective with traditional music as the starting point.
In this creative process, the visual element has its own distinct and important role. JAK Trio collaborates with Dimitris Mitsiopoulos (Altervision), who translates the relationship between musicians and instruments into visual material, designs the covers for each release, and translates the aesthetics of the music into image.
Artist Biographies
Alexandros Arkadopoulos was born in Ioannina in 1977, where he grew up. His father is a goldsmith, originally from Koniska in the mountainous Trichonida region of Aetolia-Acarnania, and his mother is an educator, originally from Gouria in Aetoliko.
He began his musical studies, both theoretical and practical, at the age of seven, initially at the Ioannina branch of the Hellenic Conservatory of Athens and later at the Epirus Conservatory. The first instruments he studied were electric organ, guitar, bouzouki, and percussion. At the age of ten, he began studying the flute and, shortly after, the traditional clarinet.
He holds a degree from the Department of Music Studies of the School of Philosophy at the University of Athens, where he is also completing his doctoral dissertation.
As a flutist, he was a founding and core member of the Ioannina Youth Symphony Orchestra since 1987, performing in numerous concerts throughout Greece and abroad (France, Germany, Spain, Japan) under distinguished foreign and Greek conductors. He also performed with the orchestra as a soloist (flute, piccolo) in Greece and internationally. He attended flute masterclasses with Ilias Barbas, Urs Ruttiman (flute professor at the Athens Conservatory), and Dimitris Fotopoulos (flute professor at the Orpheum Conservatory).
In June 1997, he received his degree in harmony from the Apollonian Conservatory under composer Vasilis Dellios. In June 2001, he earned his flute diploma with "unanimous honors" under professor Thanasis Kataras, and in June 2006, he obtained his diploma in Byzantine Music from the Conservatory of Egaleo.
As a traditional clarinetist, he took his first lessons from the great Epirote master Grigoris Kapsalis. His subsequent journey in traditional music was built on personal study and research. From a very young age, he participated in traditional weddings and folk festivals across the region of Epirus and the rest of Greece, as well as in concerts and cultural events in Greece and abroad.
He has participated as a musician in concerts, discography, theatrical performances, as well as radio and television programs with prominent artists of the art-folk scene, such as: Mikis Theodorakis, Yannis Markopoulos, Eleni Karaindrou, Nikos Kypourgos, George Dalaras, Haris Alexiou, Eleni Vitali, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Ara Dinkjian, Loreena McKennitt, Dulce Pontes, Tania Tsanaklidou, Dimitra Galani, Eleni Tsaligopoulou, Glykeria, Pitsa Papadopoulou, Christos Nikolopoulos, Nena Venetsanou, Dimitris Bassis, Maria Dimitriadi, Manolis Mitsias, Gerasimos Andreatos, Kostas Makedonas, Yiannis Kotsiras, Evanthia Reboutsika, Lina Nikolakopoulou, Elli Paspala, Kostas Thomaidis, Eleni Dimou, Sofia Papazoglou, Sokratis Malamas, Natassa Bofiliou, Lavrentis Machairitsas, Vassilis Lekkas, Minos Matsas, Giannis Haroulis, Dimitris Kontogiannis, Babis Tsertos, Stamatis Kokotas, Lakis Halkias, Antonis Vardis, Giorgos Theofanous, Antonis Remos, Stelios Rokkos, Nikos Vertis, Panos Kiamos, Nikos Oikonomopoulos, and Giannis Ploutarhos. In traditional music, he has performed alongside: Sofia Kollitiri, Filio Pyrgaki, Chronis Aidonidis, Domna Samiou, Katerina Doitsidi, Antonis Kyritsis, Panagiotis Lalezas, Savvas Siatras, Vassilis Skoulas, Stathis Bellos, Christos Tsiamoulis, Estoudiantina, Andreas Apergis, Ross Daly, Huun Huur Tu, and Krotala.
He has performed as a soloist in prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Athens Megaron Concert Hall, the Thessaloniki Megaron Concert Hall, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Ancient Conservatory of Patras, and other major cultural spaces in Greece and internationally.
In 2004, he recorded for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Athens Olympic Games, and in 2011, he recorded for the Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics at the Kallimarmaro Panathenaic Stadium. He taught traditional wind instruments at the Department of Folk and Traditional Music of the Technological Educational Institute of Epirus (Arta) from 2001 to 2005, as well as traditional clarinet at the Athens Conservatory from 2006 to 2010. He is a founding member of the musical ensemble TAKIM and the world jazz group NOUVEAU SEXTET.
Since 2017, he teaches traditional clarinet in the postgraduate program of the Department of Music Studies at the University of Athens.
Greek pianist Yann Keerim has developed a musical language that moves between classical tradition, Mediterranean folk idioms, and contemporary improvisation.
Born in Ioannina, in northwest Greece, Keerim began piano studies at the age of four, later drawing inspiration from Alexander Scriabin’s harmonic innovations. At the same time, he learned by ear at village festivals, where the sounds of regional music shaped his sense of rhythm and improvisation.
His most recent release, Topos (ECM, 2025), is his first duo recording with lyra player Sokratis Sinopoulos, produced by Manfred Eicher. The album reimagines Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances and introduces original pieces, creating a shared sound world where folk memory and contemporary expression meet. Topos is the latest step in their long collaboration, which also includes Keerim’s role as pianist in the Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet on the ECM albums Eight Winds (2013) and Metamodal (2019).
Yann is also a member of the Oceania Trio, presenting original compositions in a European jazz context, and the JAK Trio, where the music of Epirus meets classical forms.
Kostas Meretakis was born in 1979 in Athens. Strongly influenced by the cultural heritage of his Thracian roots, as well as the folk music of the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean, he has shaped his own distinctive personal style. His inclination toward percussion was evident at the age of three. Initially self-taught, he began studying percussion, while simultaneously taking lessons in electric organ and Western music theory. As a teenager, he made his first professional appearances as a percussionist. He attended the Experimental Music School of Pallini, where he studied percussion under Vangelis Karipis, and later went on to study with Zohar Fresco, Stoyan Yankoulov, Hamdi Akatay, and Levent Yildirim.
He has collaborated as a virtuoso percussionist in recordings and live performances with many distinguished Greek and international artists in Greece and abroad, including: Nana Mouskouri, Maria Farantouri, Haris Alexiou, Eleni Vitali, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, George Dalaras, Alkistis Protopsalti, Dimitra Galani, Christos Nikolopoulos, Chronis Aidonidis, Domna Samiou, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Simon Shaheen, Ross Daly, Badi Assad, Shantel, Calexico, Eric Burdon, and Joss Stone. He has also appeared on television and radio shows, as well as in musical documentaries.
Since 2001, he is the co-founder and a key member of the musical ensemble "TAKIM," with whom he has recorded two albums and performed in Greece and abroad.
In 2008, he was a member of the traditional folk orchestra that represented Greece in the cultural celebrations for the Beijing Olympic Games.
From 2017 to 2021, he taught in the Postgraduate Program of Music Studies at the Department of Ensembles of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has also taught percussion at M.E.L.M.O.K.E., the Experimental Music High School of Pallini, and the Municipal Conservatory of Patras.