Lefteris Kordis was born in Athens in 1977. He grew up in a multi-cultural environment in Elefsis, an ancient town near Athens. Since the age of four, he studied, performed, and composed music based on a wide spectrum of genres including Greek Folk, Western European Classical, and Jazz. He graduated from the Experimental Music Gymnasium and Lyceum of Pallini, the National Conservatory of Athens, the Ionian University, and pursued a Master’s and a Doctorate at New England Conservatory on Fulbright and Onassis grants.

He has performed in major international venues and festivals such as the Carnegie Hall, Panama Jazz Festival, Athens Epidaurus Festival, and Toronto Jazz Festival with artists such as Steve Lacy, George Garzone, Joe Lovano, Jay Clayton, Vasilis Saleas, Mikis Theodorakis, Sheila Jordan, Vasilis Skoulas, Greg Osby, and Robin Eubanks.

Currently he is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and the director of the music programs at the Maliotis Cultural Center in Boston. He taught and developed curriculum at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (2016-2019), teaching alongside John Patitucci, Danilo Pérez, Terri Lyne Carrington, George Garzone and Joe Lovano.

He is the co-director – along with Dimos Dimitriadis, head of the jazz section of the Ionian University – of the “Aqua Jazz”, a program that builds bridges between folk and jazz musicians of the Mediterranean region. He has served as gospel choir director and organist/pianist at the historic Columbus Ave AME Church in Boston and Cambridge.

He performs regularly with his jazz trio with bassist John Lockwood and drummer Karen Kocharyan, and co-leads the Penny Muse Band, a Greek Jazz art-song and Folk music band. His album “Oh Raven, If You Only Had Brains…” was released by Greg Osby’s Inner Circle Music in 2012.