By Sarah Johnson — Correspondent
When composing, Berklee College of Music student Stavros First draws inspiration from his religion, his love of classical music, and sometimes a walk around town.
He’ll hear a melody and then sit down at the piano in his Concord Center studio, and “it just sort of flows from my mind to the keys,” he told The Bridge.
At 21, working toward a degree in film composition, First said he has been creating music, mostly classical, since he was about 10 years old. That’s when he was given a music theory mat that could be placed over piano keys, and he could use the visual cues to read and compose music. Before then, he learned music by ear, including violin lessons starting at age 6.
Now, the multi-instrumentalist has gained attention for another type of music: sacred music he has composed, performed, and posted on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music.
‘A melody and a drone’
This music is inspired by Byzantine chant, a 2,000-year-old musical tradition First has heard as a longtime parishioner at St. Nicholas, a Greek Orthodox church in Lexington.
Using the liturgical texts from Orthodox worship, he’s created Appalachian Orthodox chants, which are influenced by American folk music.
“When people think about church music or religious music, you think about an organ, a huge choir, or whatever,” First said. “But in Orthodoxy, we have what’s called chant, and it’s just two voices. Usually it’s a melody and a drone.”
The Appalachian version of these chants is relatively new, and resources are limited for musicians and choirs interested in using it, said Andrew York, general manager of King & Saint Café in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, who recently found First’s music through online searches.
In August, First performed at a Christian music festival the café put on at its adjacent concert venue.
“Stavros’ performance was better than the recording. In person he was able to do some ancient Greek melodies as well,” York said. “It was absolutely gorgeous.”
It was also the first time First had performed his own Appalachian composition for a live audience.
“Whenever I performed classical pieces, it sort of felt like a disconnect between me and the music, like I was singing somebody else’s words,” he said. “This music felt like a natural place for me to be.”
Surging online
“The Trisagion Hymn,” the initial Appalachian or “American style” chant that First uploaded to YouTube, has received 292,000 views since 2024.
Also this summer, First released “Mother of Life: Orthodox Chants to the Theotokos.” The album, which he said was inspired by several Orthodox musical traditions, has received nearly 100,000 streams.
Posting the first hymn was an experiment. He thought, “‘I have this background in American music and in Byzantine chant. Let’s see what happens when I combine the two.’ And it really caught on,” First said.
First, who has lived in Concord most of his life, attributes his love of music to his parents, who played classical music in the house while he was growing up and provided him with composition lessons at the Rivers School Conservatory in Weston.
“I love how music can be used to communicate such a wide array of emotions and meaning,” he said.
First has stood out among the students of Stephen Halloran, a Berklee professor and First’s mentor for over 10 years, for consistently trying to develop his talent and always having a composition in the works.
“He wants to write something that people can appreciate, and it’s hard to do that with some originality and some flair and to do it your own way,” Halloran said. “I feel like he’s doing that with his Appalachian chants.”
