The Cypriot Fiddler
The Cypriot Fiddler is a long-term ethnographic research project documenting the life stories of some of the last surviving traditional musicians of Cyprus, both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The project, initiated and led by Dr Nicoletta Demetriou, brings together ethnomusicology, oral history and audio-visual research to document a professional group that has largely disappeared.
The research is based on more than fifteen years of fieldwork and interviews and took place under considerable time pressure. Many of the musicians were of advanced age, and several passed away before the project was completed. Their personal testimonies preserve a distinct form of oral storytelling, expressed in their own versions of the Cypriot dialect of Greek. Local idiolects and musical terminology are documented in detail, preserving oral traditions that are rarely written down.
The musicians worked at weddings, religious festivals and community celebrations in the first half of the 20th century. Their documented stories reveal a shared musical tradition and the everyday life of the different communities in Cyprus, before being physically and socially divided.
The research is grounded in long-term ethnographic interviews and close engagement with the musicians over many years. Testimonies are presented with minimal interpretative commentary, allowing musicians to tell their experiences in their own words. In The Cypriot Fiddler book, Demetriou’s explanatory texts in standard modern Greek appear alongside the musicians’ life stories told in the Cypriot dialect of Greek, placing the musicians’ voices at the centre. A documentary follows the same approach.
The project is also relevant beyond Cyprus. Comparable professional musicians existed across Mediterranean Europe, where music was transmitted orally within local communities. The research records language, repertoire and lived experience, adding to the understanding of shared European traditions.
The project was developed with exceptionally limited funding, including small research grants and a community crowdfunding campaign. It resulted in a documentary film, a book and an open-access website with recorded testimonies. Public events in Nicosia’s buffer zone area and presentations in villages across Cyprus brought together musicians and audiences from both communities. The collected material is preserved and publicly accessible through The Cypriot Fiddler website, hosted by the Cyprus Music Archive, a similarly bottom-up initiative.
The Awards’ Jury stated: “With its sustained, bottom-up approach, The Cypriot Fiddler research project safeguards a shared intangible heritage and strengthens understanding of different communities across the dividing line, encouraging a new generation to value traditional musical expression.”
Contact: Dr Nicoletta Demetriou | The Cypriot Fiddler/Cyprus Music Archive | thecypriotfiddler@gmail.com | www.thecypriotfiddler.com, www.cyprusmusicarchive.org