Supplicant and the ritual of Supplication (Hiketia) were unwritten laws of divine origin and their guardian was the king of 12 gods Zeus, the divine refugee who was rescued as an infant after his mother Rhea fled to the most sacred of Cretan caves, the Idaeon Andro.
In this emblematic place, in the heart of Psiloritis, through an artistic and scientific partnership, the timeless concept of Ikesia as a refugee and Plea is approached in the context of the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. At an altitude of 1550 meters, a symbolic thematic cycle will be attempted from Smyrna waterfront to the foothills of Xenios Zeus, which will include two thematic contributions, a theatrical excerpt from Aeschylus’ tragedy Icetides and the musical-theatrical improvisation
Refugee (part of Metartum a Cultural – Augmented Reality Project). Finally, the event concludes with a musical performance by the band of the Cretan artist Vassilis Skoulas.
The Dark Side of Memory/The Pier is a musical multimedia performance about the collective trauma of “the Asia Minor Catastrophe” and the twofold substance of our roots. It is structured around testimonies of historical unnamed protagonists, which, during the performance, are voiced by an unseen person.
Small pieces of living memory, gleaned from the sacred pool of the dead, drip their blessing onto the present, weaving the ground on which every wound rejoices and heals. The living root of the catastrophe sprouts underground in the body of Greece, founding an Asia Minor which is more real than the actual one.
Everything is abandoned to the ocean of the inevitable, transforming the throng of the uprooted into an international symbol. Music is an islet of consolation, a hint about the inner homeland, towards which the refugees unceasingly march.
A proposal that combines the original traditional music of Asia Minor, from the days of joy and prosperity to the days of the uprooting, folk-rebetiko music as it evolved in metropolitan Greece, and contemporary music.
Three different orchestras co-exist onstage, the original traditional orchestra of Smyrna, the Folk-Rebetiko orchestra in the form it acquired in inland Greece, and a Classical Symphony Orchestra performing the Oratorio. The latter will present in its world premiere Christos Samaras’ work Mnimes (Memories).
This musical journey is a sequence and co-habitation of music, poetry, dance, images and performing, composing a complete, ripe, and interdisciplinary performance-concert that illuminates the eternal Asia Minor of Greeks.
A music and dance performance in collaboration with the Athos Danellis Shadow Puppet Theatre and Kyriakos Gouventas’ musical company, which will attempt to showcase the musical and dance tradition of Asia Minor through a journey across the time before its destruction, the subsequent uprooting of its inhabitants, and the transformation of their tradition in the new setting of Greece of the time.
Asia Minor has always been a crossroads of nations and cultures, a melting pot of musical traditions of the West and the East.
The folk songs and tunes still surviving to a great extent to this day are known to be an age-old legacy coming to us from a region that is at once so close, yet so far from us: Asia Minor.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the Encardia ensemble presents a special and very topical musical programme.
An excellent anthology of songs and texts that will illuminate the ever-topical issue of refugeeism and migration.
A focal point of the performance will be human solidarity, the only thing that can alleviate the “Foreigner’s” pain, even transform it into hope and optimism.
A performance that will mostly feature old instrumental pieces from the wider region of Asia Minor ingeniously rearranged by the Violione Orchestra.
The goal of this alternative twenty-member ensemble of exclusively bowed strings is to bring out a romantic and at the same time communicative and outward-looking mood, with elements of earlier and more modern techniques, taking us on a musical journey from the past into the future with abundant improvisations while creating a dynamic continuation of the old style of performing bowed stings into the contemporary one.
The orchestra is conducted by Giannis Zarias, assistant violin professor in the Department of Music Science & Art of the University of Macedonia.
A beautiful aristocratic woman named Smyrna receives in her poor now home, somewhere in Kokkinia or Nea Ionia of the 1930s, six wandering musicians. Together they dig up and reshape precious moments from her turbulent life…
The Alcedo folk band, through the eyes and memories of a woman who’s also a city, Smyrna, compose a new and fresh musical performance and present their first Suite based on themes from the works of great Smyrnaean composers (Kalomiris, Konstantinidis and others) and other popular songwriters (Tountas, Peristeris, Papazoglou, Dragatsis-Ogdontakis and more).
The selection of songs by the above-mentioned songwriters as well as the original traditional songs from Smyrna featured in the performance are arranged by the Alcedo Folk Band.
The work is set in 1950s Greece in a train compartment hosting refugees from various areas of Asia Minor, Pontus and Cappadocia. As is often the case with travelling, passengers start telling stories both about their motherlands before the uprooting and about the adventures of their settlement in Greece.
Through original songs and texts, six stories of people unfold, showcasing their memories from their motherland before the uprooting and their nostalgia for it, their adventurous journey to Greece and the problems of their adaptation and integration into the new environment, but also a series of positive influences, brought about by the refugee influx into the economic and intellectual life of Greece.
The wandering ticket inspector is the one who conveys how natives view the Greeks of the East.
The cicada (tettix in ancient Greek) is by nature associated with the process of transformation when it turns from a nymph into an adult. In the movement-based music performance Pontic Cantada the contemporary music ensemble TETTTIX (with a triple t) presents its own imaginary version of the forced “transformation” of a society.
After the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Treaty of Lausanne, a part of Pontic Greek refugees settled in Corfu. The mingling of populations, mutually influencing one another, forced the two parties to reconsider their beliefs and habits.
Through drama and satire and in a quasi-vaudevillian mood, TETTTIX and Eugenia Demeglio (choreography/movement) transform the kemençe and the mandolin into a new entity, in a context where otherness evokes reflection and stigmatization and is at the same time refreshing, invigorating and inspiring.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, this concert will be based on two emblematic works of Apostolos Kaldaras released in 1972-73, “Byzantine Vesper” and “Asia Minor”.
Apart from Apostolos Kaldaras’ songs, the concert will also feature covers of emblematic songs from the countries of origins of present-day refugees. The set surrounding the orchestra consists of five large paintings by Kostas Kaldaras inspired by the 2015 refugee crisis, while it will also include screenings of historical documentary material and photographs having as their theme refugees over time – a selection made in collaboration with the Photographers of Trikala Team.
Andreas Karakottas and Ioanna Giannopoulou sing accompanied by a seven-member orchestra. Arrangements are by Sakis Kontonikolas.