Melina Paxinos is a German-born Greek saxophonist and composer, born and raised in Hamburg. Her music combines modern Jazz with elements of her Greek heritage and neo-classical orchestral influences. She began her musical journey early, receiving a scholarship at the age of nine from the Yamaha Music School in Hamburg to study composition.
Melina later pursued formal education, earning a Bachelor of Arts in
music production, composition and arrangement from the SRH Hochschule der populären Künste in Berlin.
Her compositions showcasing a diverse range of styles, blending modern Jazz with traditional Greek elements, which are characterized by odd meters, mediterranean melodies and groovy riffs, as exemplified by her band, Melina Paxinos Quartet. On the other hand, she also explores neo-classical orchestral music for film. This fusion reflects her cultural background as well as her classical and contemporary musical influences.
Her debut album, Circle of Oddness (2018), illustrates the connection between the odd and even meters, drawing inspiration from the mathematical constant π = 3.14 by Archimedes, which also has a personal significance, as it is dedicated to her father.
Her second album, Athens (2019), was recorded at Sierra Studios in her hometown of Athens. This album features the renowned Ross Daly on Cretan lyre and captures the vibrant energy of the city that inspired its creation.
In 2020, Melina released Remixes EP, a collaboration with the legendary Lena Platonos, pioneer of Greek electronic music (coop. Stergios T).
The EP reimagines four tracks from her previous albums Circle of Oddness and Athens and combined electronic music and Greek Jazz.
In May 2022, Melina released her fourth album, Time, which featured Andreas Polyzogopoulos on trumpet and flugelhorn. Here, modern Jazz meets Mediterranean flair, creating a small journey through time with the help of her expressive melodies. This album was realized with support of the GEMA and Neustart Kultur grant.
The band Melina Paxinos Quartet has been performing together since 2018 and comprises Melina Paxinos (bandleader, saxophone, composer), Yiannis Papadopoulos (piano), Ntinos Manos (bass), and Dimitris Klonis (drums).
Melina has performed at a variety of venues and festivals in Germany, Greece and abroad, including Fabrik (Hamburg), B-flat Jazz Club (Berlin), Zig Zag Jazz Club (Berlin), Athens Epidaurus Festival, Syros Jazz Festival, Half Note Jazz Club, Rhodes Jazz Festival, Kasos Jazz Festival, Goldbekhaus (Hamburg), Universität der Künste Berlin, Red Bull Music London, The Zoo, Hotel Grande Bretagne, Hilton Athens, BlackBox Jazz Music Festival, Music Showcase Greece, American School of Classical Studies Athens, Parnassos Literary Society, Heraklion Jazz Festival,
π Global Center for Circular Economy and Culture, Delphi and many more.
Outside of the Jazz sphere, Melina and her saxophone have accompanied artists like Kat Frankie at the Pop-Kultur Festival and the band Dope est Dope during a live session for Red Bull Music in London. Furthermore, Melina and her team collaborated with the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin to test the OmniCam-360.
In addition to her albums, Melina has composed music for various media projects.
She created the score for the children’s audio novel The 8 Little Fishes and the Time Machine (2021), featuring narrators such as the Greek chefs Lefteris Lazarou, Christoforos Peskias, Asterios Koustoudis and many more.
The German version included voices such as Carlo von Tiedemann, Maren Bockholdt, Karsten Sekund and many more.
Melina’s music has been featured in the in-flight entertainment of airlines such as Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian Airlines (2020-2021), and she has been recognized as a nominee for the Greek International Women Awards (2021-2023). Additionally, she earned a top 20 spot in the Oticons Faculty International Film Music Competition (2021) and participated at the Screen Composer Academy workshop by Vasilis Milesis.
Melina also composes music for TV, contributing to channels such as 3sat, SWR FS, Sat 1, Saarländischer Rundfunk, Nederland 2, and Nederland 3, Kanal 5 (DK) and many more.
Her orchestral work has been performed by Camerata Europaea under the direction of Maria Makraki, as part of the L.O.V.E. concert at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, celebrating International Women’s Day 2024.
Melina composed the music for the new film by director & video artist George Drivas and presented it live with her band Melina Paxinos Quartet alongside the film screening at the π (Global Center for Circular Economy and Culture), in Delphi, (Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative (PCAI) within the framework of the Ministry of Culture's 2024 program "All of Greece, One Culture."
Currently she is working on her upcoming neo-classical album Amoroso, inspired by surrealism and the works of René Magritte (The Lovers II, The Heartstrings, The False Mirror). This album combines melody and emotion in a nostalgic yet dynamic way, featuring a variety of instruments, including a string quintet, wind instruments, harp, synthesizers, and vibraphone, all within an amorous context.
She plans to release it in the coming months, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of surrealism's inception and André Breton's manifest.
(Release date tba)
Some of her favorite movies include 8 1/2 (Fellini), Playtime (Jacques Tati), 2046 (Wong Kar-Wai), Tampopo (Juzo Itami), Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders), Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson), Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski) and many more.
