A doctor's musical journey
by Dimitri C. Michalakis
Mike Vasilomanolakis was returning from Greece as a boy on the Queen Frederica when the ship stopped in Naples and he made the first investment of his musical career: he bought himself an accordion and later learned to play it.
“As I learned to play this somewhat complex instrument, I developed my passion for music,” says the 54-year-old Vasilomanolakis, now a respected cardiologist in Long Beach, California.
And about ten years ago he made the second major investment of his musical career: he met a talented young musician named Omar Akram and he became the executive producer of his three widely-praised New Age CDs.
“From the very first piece that I heard (in 1996) I was impressed,” says Vasilomanolakis, who juggles his music producer role with his private practice and duties as the director of Cardiac Services and the Heart Catheterization Laboratory at the Community Hospital of Long Beach. “The music is extremely melodic, with an excellent blend of additional instruments, including violin, guitar, percussion and the Duduke, which is an Armenian flute of sorts. It is extremely well orchestrated and it is hard for me to imagine that there is a better orchestrated CD anywhere.”
In fact, one reviewer said of the duo’s current CD, Secret Journey, that “not only is it a number one hit, but may actually be the darling CD of the year.” It’s also being considered for a Grammy nomination.
“We believe that if we had the notoriety of some of the more established artists, our CD would be the number one CD of the year,” says Vasilomanolakis proudly.
Akram has been asked to perform for The Kite Runner motion picture release, has New Age guru Deepak Chapora as a booster, and numbers Bill Gates, John Travolta and Sharon Stone among his fans.
“I look around and see people who are bored, restless, stagnant, and I know they often take secret journeys in their mind as they daydream about other places they could be,” says Akram, 43, who was born in New York City to the Afghan ambassador to the UN and through his father’s career was exposed to musical influences throughout the world (“When I was six, I began taking piano lessons from a member of the Prague Symphony Orchestra”).
Vasilomanolakis, despite a distinguished career, remained fond of music and was looking for a musical journey (among physical journeys he climbed Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1998), and despite their varied past, the cardiologist and the musician became travelers together.
“We met in my office that November in 1996,” Vasilomanolakis remembers of Akram. “He came in with a plastic bag containing cassette tapes of music that he had made…We talked about producing a 4-song CD sampler to shop around to record labels in hopes that he would obtain a music contract. Subsequently, people recommended that we do an entire CD rather than just four songs.”
Vasilomanolakis put up the money and their first CD, Opal Fire, rose to Top 15 on the Billboard national New Age sales chart. Their second, Free as a Bird, utilized the talents of fabled jazz musician Gregg Karukas and was ranked the #2 contemporary instrumental album of 2004 by the Wind & Wire review of instrumental music.
Their third, Secret Journey, was not released until this September because Vasilomanolakis says their record label (Real Music) felt, “it was a tremendous hit and they wanted to put everything in order in order to be able to make a big splash from the start. This included getting the graphics just right for the CD cover, as well as getting appropriate people involved to help publicize and distribute it.”
Because of his medical practice, his own role in all this is limited, but he says the function of the executive producer anyway is to find the money and let the musicians do their thing, though he will stop into the studio “to see how things are going. And Omar would bring me samples of the pieces that he was working on. He would play the piano piece for me and then later in the studio would add the other instruments. It was always fun when he completed a song.”
And since Vasilomanolakis and Akram share a friendship as well as a musical bond, the doctor says, “I become an integral part of the production of a CD. I am able at times to effect or alter the way some of the music is going, though by-and-large I let the artist do this. Nonetheless, I have been able to change some notes on some songs and to influence the tune. Music is the universal language.”
Vasilomanolakis’ own son Costa, 20, is now playing and producing techno music (“I would love to see myself being his executive producer,” admits his father), the doctor still keeps the old accordion around just in case and has composed tunes on the piano that he runs by Akram, and he and his wife Niki might catch Akram in concert.
“I feel his music is truly wonderful and I enjoy listening to his music again and again and again,” says Vasilomanolakis. “I will oftentimes introduce him to the audience.”
Besides their musical kinship, they also share a personal and cultural affinity (“Every time Omar and I sit to eat we both say our prayers”), as Vasilomanolakis’ mother Alexandra can attest.
“I introduced him to my mother and was very impressed at how he treated her,” says the doctor. “He referred to her as ‘Mom’ and when he first met her he bent over and kissed her hands…I believe he is a person who has a great deal of respect for other people.”
Akram certainly has that for his mentor and musical partner.
“Without him, none of this would have been possible,” he says.
