On Friday, October 21, Mediterranean musician known as Pavlo enthralled audience members at the Lester Centre of the Arts, when he and his band performed a concert as part of their Canada-wide tour.
This was not Pavlo’s first trip to the City of Rainbows, as he performed here in the early 2000’s, and promised that the show in Prince Rupert would be the best concert they performed on the 2011 tour.
Pavlo, and his band mates George Vasilakos, Gino Mirizio and Randy Rodrigues, stuck to their promise and captivated the audience with an arrangement of different instruments including the Greek bouzouki, baglama, Chinese ehru, Portugese guitarra, the guitar, Arabic flute and Indian sitar.
There was also a sense of surprise, as Pavlo and his band do not have a set list, they decide what songs they are going to play on stage. Additionally, many of the songs they performed last Friday evening were new material, with some of them being performed live for the very first time in Prince Rupert.
Pavlo and his band are currently touring around Canada after releasing their ninth album entitled “Sixth String Blvd”. The group has been, and will continue to visit communities mainly in British Columbia, but also in Saskatchewan and Ontario. Their stop in Prince Rupert was the eighth show on the tour, with the group having seven remaining concerts to perform.
But Pavlo is about more than playing beautiful-sounding Mediterranean music; Pavlo and his band members also travel with World Vision during tours, encouraging audience members to sponsor children living in poverty in third world countries. Since Pavlo start touring with World Vision, the group has been responsible for getting over seven hundred kids sponsored. As well, Pavlo has been named the official North American spokesperson for Batten Disease, a very rare degenerative brain disease that affects children.