Some that come to mind:
George and Antonios Syrkas:
1) George Syrkas, one of Greece's most respected psaltai (sadly passed away in 2003), when he was Protopsaltis of St-Constantine+Helen Omonoia Athens would always have his father, the legendary Antonios Syrkas EVERY service sitting behind the analogion and hawkishly listening. EVERYONE at the analogion, including his son, were scared to death of making one single mistake or performing something out of line with what was the norm (to the note!) in Constantinople, no matter how "nice" it sounded to the people. (That's the level of conservative that existed in the 50s). On one occasion, as Antonios was deep in meditation, George decided to pull off a "thesi" that was more like a maqam. The old man rapidly opened his eyes, rushed to the back of the analogion, grabbed George's raso by the back and started pulling it violently while shouting loudly :" Is that tradition you donkey? Is that what you learned you donkey? Is that what is history passed down to you you donkey?". Suffice it to say, George NEVER strayed until the old man's passing in 1974 (Antonios was born in 1872 and was in Contantinople for more than 40 years-25 as Protopsaltis of St-Constantine and Helen Pera; he was a student of Nileas Kamarados, Giagkos Vasileiadis, Polychronios Pacheidis and Eystratios Papadopoulos; he served as locum tenens Protopsaltis of the Great Church of Christ) before the family was exiled from Turkey in the 1930s).
2) Every service when the analogia knew that the old man would be in attendance, they would place a lookout outside the church to warn the two analogia that " the old man is coming".
3) Ioannis Mathioudakis ,a respected chanter, still active today, and a student of many renown Athenian psaltai of the 40s and 50s, carries a miniature card in his blazer pocket that is a miniature copy of his diploma and certificate of completion of a five year study program "with the grade of excellent throughout". In those days, you were judged as a chantor by your vocal capacities and capabilities, by your sticking with tradition in terms of musical scores and execution and by who your teachers were. Mathioudakis was accomplished by all the standards. However, one day in the late 60s, when the phenomenon of conservatories starting picking up speed, someone accused Mathioudakis of "not possessing any papers". So, he went, completed the 5 + 2 year programs and was awarded his papers. To this day, if he is asked "where did you learn" he takes out the miniature laminate card and shows it to all, "just in case".
4) The famous "Tin Oraiotita tis parthenias sou" by Nileas Kamarados chanted at the end of the small compline of the Salutations/Akathyst service was transmitted to us by Antonios Syrkas. Nileas would NEVER give his compositions to anyone, but instead would chant them in church. Syrkas, who was his lampadarios in the early 1900s, wanting to learn how to chant it himself (since in a right-left analogion system, that hymn is chanted by the left analogion), pulled one of Nileas' oldest-serving domestichoi (who knew the music of that hymn to the smallest detail) to the tavern across the church, got him drunk, asked him to perform it a couple of times and then wrote it down. When Antonios Syrkas asked Nileas for permission to perform it the week after, Nileas smirked but gave permission. Upon hearing it, Nileas asked his domestichoi "who taught him that" angrily. The guilty domestichos received a swift kick in the butt, was knocked down from the analogion. Nileas then told Syrkas "give it to me so at least I can correct it!".
.....I'll think of more.....
N.