Dimitris Athanasiadis
(Doctor, Musician, Author)
He was born in 1950 and lived his primary school and first high school years in Aphitos. He later moved to Thessaloniki.
He studied medicine and music (the piano, Diploma in the Theory of music, Composition and Conduct) in Greece and abroad and when he finished his studies he settled in Thessaloniki, where he originally worked as a doctor and a musician, but in 1985 he turned to music exclusively.
During a period when musical education in Greece was still at an infant stage, he contributed greatly not only with his tutorial ability but also with his auctorial work. This auctorial work is of great significance as for the very first time it enriched the very poor, existing literature on Greek music. It was made well-known throughout the country as well as abroad.
His great number of works have been published many times and are to be found in many big libraries in Greece, in Europe and in the U.S.A.
Today he is the President and tutor of the Macedonian Odeum of Thessaloniki and Arts Director of the Municipal Odeum in Veria and Giannitsa.

Books by Dimitris Athanasiadis

• BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC
• HISTORY OF MUSIC (ANCIENT AND EASTERN CULTURES)
• HISTORY OF MUSIC (2 volumes)
• COMPOSITION OF MUSIC (3 volumes)
• MUSICAL ANALYSIS
• MUSICAL MORPHOLOGY
• THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF POLYPHONY (COUNTERPOINT)
• THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF POLYPHONY (FUGUE)
• THEORETICAL BASES OF TRADITIONAL HARMONICS
• THEMES ON TRADITIONAL HARMONICS (3 volumes)
• POLITICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND IN THE STRUCTURE OF MODERN MUSIC
• MODERN MUSIC (THE BROADENING OF TONALITY FROM ROMANTICISM UP TO THE BEGINNING OF THE 20 TH CENTURY)
• MODERN MUSIC (THE COMPLETION OF ... ON THE WORK OF P. BOULEZ)
• O. MESSIAEN (TECHNICAL SYNTHESES/COMPOSITIONS AND HIS WORK)
• FROM NEARLY GREECE (POLITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL MONOGRAPH)
• MUSICAL PIONEERING AND MARXISM - COUNTER REVOLUTION TO THE POLITICAL FORMALISM (being published)

Kleanthis Valaroutsos
(Dermatologist - Venerealogist, Journalist)
He was born and brought up in Aphitos where he went to primary school, he started going to high school in Valta and... in 1968 emigrated to Thessaloniki with his family (parents and three children) to find his fortune. He entered the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1973 and became a doctor specializing in dermatology - venerealogy and since then he has been living with the impression that he ministers medicine exclusively as an independent professional.
Since he was a student he had a strong desire for Journalism, a bug that is still within him. He has passed through many offices as a reporter, newspapers, magazines and radio (he has still not appeared on television but hopes never to be tempted to do so), such as "Sports", "Sports News", "New Truth" - "Greek North", "Macedonia", "Thessaloniki", "First", "Sports of the North", "Metrosport", "A-103", "Metropolis", always specializing in football.
He is also a keen syndicalist (he stopped believing that he can save the world a very long time ago) making his friends and colleagues "suffer" through his various activities in which he takes part (at present he is a member of the Medical Committee of Thessaloniki). He has been assigned the publication of the journal of the Medical Committee of Thessaloniki called "Medical Issues" where he has the double responsibility of publication advisor and journalistic supervisor.
What rescues him and gives him life is his strong bond with the village from which he is never away (so he states). He soon realized that it was worth supporting the cultural effort of the then president of the village committee (unfortunately Aphitos has become a municipality - but it is never too late) Vasili Pavlis whose wonderful initiative he supports - with responsibilities such as being in charge of communication. He believes that the same thing should apply to the new venture, not only because "Aphitos of Athitos" still has a long way to go but also because the record of the historical - folkloric - cultural heritage of Aphitos, is everyone's responsibility.

Leonidas D. Galanis
(Professor of archaeology and history, Author)
He was born in Aphitos of Chalkidiki, he graduated from the Cassandria High School and then entered the School of Philosophy of the University of Thessaloniki.
After having completed his military service he worked as a scientific assistant in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.
He later went on to teach in private high schools, and preparatory schools.
After that he worked for public high schools as a teacher and as a Principal.
He has written:

a) Aphitos from ancient to modern times.
b) General history for candidate students of Theoretical Schools.
c) Six volumes of ancient Greek passages.

Nicholaos Katsanis
(Head chef, culinary professor)
Nicholaos Katsanis was born in 1957 in Millicent, South Australia.
He graduated from the School of Tourism and has worked in all hotel departments as well as in all culinary departments (kitchen, buffet, confectionery, bar, head waiter). Twelve years ago he became the proprietor and chef of the restaurant "Sousourada".
As a Chef he has won 4 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals in Mediterranean Culinary Competitions. Also, being a member of "Slow Food", he has presented thematic workshops - three in 1998 and three in 2000 - at the "Salon de gusto" in Turin. He represented Greece in the "Metiterraneo a la Tavola", which took place in Pizitano, Italy. He also introduced the Macedonian menu in Norway and Egypt. He has also made television shows on cookery, which have been shown on ET-1 channel of Greece and NRK channel of Norway.
Nicholaos Katsanis is a member of the Chef club of Greece, "Eurotongues", ENOAM and "Slow Foods".
He is also a member of the council of the Village of taste, the Chef club and "Slow Food" of Greece.
According to "Alfa guide", his restaurant is one of the best 15 restaurants in Greece and one of the best not including Thessaloniki and Athens areas.
He teaches in the IEK of Epanomi and has held many seminars for chefs and students on traditional cuisine, the use of fragrant plants and herbs, while he himself has attended a series of conventions on nutrition.
He has also worked with "TSANTALIS A.E." as well as with "KONNEMAN publishers", giving recipes and taking part in Food Styling for books and magazines.
He has a regular column in "SUNDAY" (a supplement of "The Sunday messenger")
Nick Katsanis has been married to Joanna Gregorou for ten years. His wife is his companion in life and at work and they have two children. He speaks English and Arabic.

Christos & Costas Kolovos
(Musicians, Music teachers)
Their music background begins at a very early age. At the age of 10 they start having their first guitar lessons, later they study music at the Macedonian Odeum of Thessaloniki under the tuition of Th. Grouni and Taki Anastasiadi.
Later on they got involved with composing, were awarded the 3rd prize in the Thessaloniki Song Festival in 1995, with the song "Love for Aphitos". In 1998 they made their first recording entitled "In this land where colours change" with Minos EMI, produced by Thanos Mikroutsikos. Recently they created a group in the Municipal Odeum of M. Moudania, which is involved with Greek music. The group that has been formed is called "Musicians without Borders" and it consists of children studying at the Odeum.
Finally, they have held concerts with Xanthipi Karathanasi and Basili Lekka.

Maro Milona-Piara
(Author)
Maro Piara-Milona was born to Dimitris and Aretoula Piaras in Halastra, Thessaloniki. She is married to Pafsania Milona and they have got two children, George and Dimitra. In order to fulfill her father's wish she became a dressmaker, an artist for her mother and a good cook for her husband, Pafsanias...
Pafsanias built a lodging house for Maro in Athitos.
The recipes that you will find in this book are traditional dishes of Athitos where Maro has been living lately.
The cookery book that she wrote is dedicated to Pafsanias for all the good things that he brought into her life.

John Papavasiliou
(Artist)
John Papavasiliou, the son of Apostolos, was born in Aphitos, Chalkidiki in 1947. He is married to Sophia Papavasiliou and they have three children.
He works for the School of Medicine of the University of Thessaloniki . He is an expert on the methods of applied physiology of the cardiorespiratory system, with great participation in epidemic research and research programmes, studies of which have been published in Greek and foreign journals.
He was in the management team of the G. Papanikolaou hospital and is a member of the Labour Union of the hospital.
He is a member of the Management Committee of the the Folklore Company.
He is a Town Councillor for the Municipality of Cassandra.
He is an artist who has held group and personal art exhibitions.
He believes that art, the cultural evidence and tradition, is the ideal combination to retain our homeplace alive so that it can continue engraving its history through the years.

George Paralis
(Artist)
He was born on 6 January 1908 in Poligiros. His father was from Athitos and his mother was from Poligiros. His father, Nicholas, who worked as a gunsmith in Poligiros, was the offspring of one the oldest families in Athitos. During the revolution in 1821, the family, whose name was originally Athanasiadis, came down possibly from the Mt. Olympus area and settled in Athitos. The artist's great grandfather, Stergios, was the first one to carry the name Paralis whereas his great grandfather's brother, John, retained the name Athanasiadis.
George, the only child of Nicholas and Anastasia Paralis, lost his parents early in his childhood. Later after finishing primary school he studied at St. Anastasia's School, where his talent for painting was encouraged by his art teacher, the well-known artist Antonis Polikandriotis.
Through many financial difficulties and with virtually no support, during 1928 - 1933 he studied art in the School of Fine Arts in Athens with the artist Umberto Argyro. With privation, hardship and frail health he managed to obtain his diploma in 1933. In the same year he held and exhibition in the Zappeio Art Exhibition.
Meanwhile, from 1932 onwards he started visiting Mt. Athos where he got the opportunity to study Byzantine art. During his adolescence he used to come to Athitos which made him form an even closer bond. In 1937 he married and settled permanently in Thessaloniki. He worked as teacher of art and design in the "Anatolia College" until 1970.
During the difficult years of the war and the occupation, he never stopped painting and in 1944, exhibited his paintings in Thessaloniki. In 1948 he made his first personal appearance in Thessaloniki. Many significant group and individual exhibits followed in Greece and abroad.
Since 1964, when he got his house in our village, he would spend his summers here and this gave him the opportunity to go through the whole of Cassandra. In 1969 he presented the product of his sallies entitled "Hills and Beaches of Cassandra" in the Goethe Institute in Athens.
Paralis also drew landscapes of other areas besides Cassandra - Thasos, Scopelos, Mykonos, Naousa, Florina, Kastoria - portraits, still life and other subjects. He exhibited the paintings that he painted around 1970 in the "Astor Gallery" in Athens . The theme of these paintings was mostly of shops and shop windows mainly of Thessaloniki.
He died on 5 September 1975 leaving quite a few of his paintings incomplete. He was buried in Poligiros.
The National Picture Gallery in Athens and the Bafopoulio Centre in Thessaloniki paid tribute to the painter with two very big retrospective exhibitions in 1980 and 1985 respectively.

Nick Paralis
(artist)
He was born in Thessaloniki in 1941.
His father, the artist George Paralis (1908-1975), showed him the way to art.
He studied art in the School of Fine Arts in Athens (1961-1966). His teachers were I. Moralis in art, K. Georgakopoulos in Byzantine art and P. Prevelakis in the history of art.
In 1970 he started his post graduate studies in England. He started his studies in the Royal Academy and later went on to the School of Fine Arts in Reading (1971- 1973, Master in Fine Art). During that period he started making structures and signs.
He was a founding member of the Centre of Art in Athens in 1974.
In 1980, influenced by his sculptor friend Spiros Katapodis and his wife Christina, he started working with clay and plaster.
In 1980 he also started working with the village of Athitos in Chalkidiki where he designed and formed the central square of the village and created the museum of Athitos .
In 1985 he and his colleagues V. Dimitrea, V. Kiriaki, M. Kokkinou and R. Menis, joined the "Group of Art 4 plus" participating in exhibitions and other functions of the group.
However, his participation in group exhibitions started in 1962. Some of them were the Panhellenic exhibition in 1965 and 1967, the exhibition of post graduate artists in the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford in 1973 and the exhibition of Greek artists in Amsterdam in 1981.
He has held three exhibitions as far as his personal exhibitions are concerned.
His experience also includes stage scenery that he occasionally made for various theatrical performances.
He also worked as art teacher in high schools and in the Training Dept. of Kindergarten teachers in the University of Thessaloniki.
He died in 1995.

Vasilis Pavlis
(Sculptor)

He was born in 1956. He has been having exhibitions since 1982. He has developed a high cultural interest in Aphitos, Chalkidiki, as the president of the Folklore Movement since 1981, member of the village council in 1991, president of the village (1995-1998), local councilor (1999).

He has held 14 personal exhibitions (1986, 1992 "The Diagonios small Picture Gallery" Thessaloniki, 1994, The Cassandra Festival in Porto Carras, 2001 M.K.E. "Art" in Kilkis and many more) from which three were retroactive (1991 in the Art Room of the Municipal building in Thessaloniki, 2002 Literary Centre of Athens, 2003 Geni Mosque in Thessaloniki).

He took part in many group exhibitions (1982 Z.M. Gallery, Thessaloniki, 1993 G.I. Katsigra Museum, Larisa, 1996 "Youth for Art" O.P.P.E.TH , 1999 Sani Festival, Artist of Cassandra and many more)

He is a member of SKETBE. His works are included in public and private collections (Municipal picture Gallery, Thessaloniki, E.M.S. Picture Gallery, Museum of Modern Art in Florina, Town Hall of Aphitos and N. Moudania.)

Athanasios Stamoulis
(church chanter)
He was born in Athitos in 1933. His father was from Athitos and his mother from Asia Minor. He is one of the best church chanters of the area. He gained his first music knowledge from the many, good chanters of the village and as there were many of them (so the story goes) they had to sing from their pews. He studied Byzantine and European music in Athens and in Thessaloniki.
He was a graduate of the Ioannis Damaskinos School of Byzantine Music in Thessaloniki. He was a student of A. Karamani. His singing had a distinctive Mt. Athos tone which he had learnt in the fourteen months that he had spent there in his youth (1949-1950) for reasons of survival. He began his chanting ministry from the church music stand of his village, to which he came back, and in 2000 completed a thirty-year music career. In the interim he chanted in different churches in St. Catherine's church in Pireas, Church of the Holy Trinity in Thessaloniki , in the church of the Annunciation in Kalamaria, the church of the Assumption in Pefkohori and St. Nichola's church in Kallithea . He joined choirs of Byzantine music with which he gave numerous music concerts in Greece and abroad. He died in 2001 and was buried in the village cemetery.

Chrisostomos Stamoulis
(Professor of Theology Univ. Of Thess., Musician, Conductor)
He was born in Aphitos in 1964. His parents were from Aphitos. He studied theology in the University of Thessaloniki , in Daram ( England ) and in the University of Belgrade ( Serbia ). In 1989 he was nominated doctor of Theology of the University of Thessaloniki . He is a Professor Emeritus in the Theology Department of the School of Theology in the University of Thessaloniki . Today he teaches Doctrine Theology and Elegance of Orthodoxy (2004). He studied music at the Macedonian and the State Odeum of Thessaloniki. He has been the Conductor of the St. Ioannis Chrisostomos youth choirs and orchestras in Thessaloniki . He has written a series of books and articles. Most distinctive of all is The divine beauty, Prologue of the elegance of Orthodoxy (2004). In 1998 he entered the recording world releasing his first record with his own music, entitled "Litea Pili". He then wrote the soundtracks for the films Apostle Paul (2000) and Cappadocia (2002).