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Event Category: Music

Antiphons

This project creates a multidimensional experience of music, memory, and visual art centered on the former Ursuline Monastery in Loutra, Tinos, and the women whose presence shaped its history. Inspired by the Ursuline order, the musical program features works by Hildegard von Bingen and Guillaume de Machaut, performed by five musicians on period string instruments. Their interpretations create a sonic bridge between past and present, evoking the spiritual and cultural world of the monastery.

Alongside the musical performance, a visual installation composed of fifty white nightgowns printed with cyanotypes derived from photographic and published archival material from the monastery brings to light the often-unseen stories of the women who lived, worked, and studied there. Through images, sounds, and symbolic elements, the work illuminates the intangible cultural heritage of Tinos, transforming memory into a lived and immersive experience.

The event concludes with the offering of baked goods inspired by historical recipes from the monastery and by the island’s local culinary traditions, extending the audience’s engagement with the cultural memory of the place through taste and hospitality.

Aurelia in the World: The Asceticism of Love

A unique performance of music and spoken word, based on the extraordinary life and boundless service to humanity of Aurelia Papagianni (Elder Gavrilia), who was born in Constantinople in 1897 and passed away on the island of Leros in 1992.

If we accept that the most beautiful image of a human being is shaped through continuous and unconditional self-sacrifice for others, whether near or far, then Aurelia embodies the highest expression of beauty and grace that a person can attain. The seven musicians of the in excelsis ensemble and the eight choristers of the Synagma Music Workshop create a dreamlike soundscape woven from Byzantine hymns, compositions of the Ottoman classical tradition, and contemporary musical settings. Within this sonic landscape, Aurelia’s remarkable personality is illuminated and brought to life.

Unexpected literary narratives drawn from episodes of her life evoke surprise and curiosity, admiration and deep emotion. The audience is invited to embark on an unforgettable journey to the farthest reaches of the world—to the places where Aurelia traveled, worked, served, and ultimately attained holiness.

SHELTERS: The Case of Ms. S.

Mrs. Styliani, an 85-year-old woman from the village of Katafygi, recounts her life story from her apartment in the city, where she relocated nearly seventy years ago. She recalls the songs of her homeland, the people of her village, the stories passed down by her parents and grandmothers, as well as their food traditions and customs. This is a final, vivid recollection of her youth as she experienced it in the small village of the Pieria Mountains, a place rich in history and cultural heritage.

Combining music and puppet theatre, the performance explores the role and responsibility of human beings as carriers of culture, emphasizing the importance of remaining culturally active through any form of migration or displacement—whether voluntary or forced, within or beyond the borders of one’s homeland.

The work highlights the cultural richness that emerges from the interaction and blending of different traditions, as exemplified by the history of Katafygi, this small village in the Kozani region. Through Mrs. Styliani’s story, the performance reflects on memory, identity, and the enduring human capacity to preserve and transmit cultural heritage across generations and places.

Three Musical Acts of Humanity

A musical-narrative performance celebrating the power and contagious nature of human kindness. I.M.N.I., in collaboration with the Tsitsanis Research Centre and Museum, presents a multidisciplinary performance that brings together music, storytelling, and contemporary dance into a unified stage experience, set against the backdrop of the Osman Shah Mosque.

Classical interpretations of Byzantine hymns, traditional folk songs, and rebetiko music engage in dialogue with narrative episodes that recount the impact of small, everyday acts of kindness and the ways in which they spread and influence the world around us. Like ripples expanding through time and society, these acts of humanity are expressed through music and storytelling, while dance embodies the ideas of transmission, encounter, and human connection. Through movement, sound, and spoken word, the performance explores how simple gestures of compassion can resonate far beyond their immediate moment, shaping collective experience and strengthening the bonds between people.

Singing Lessons – Mr. Angelos

Singing Lessons with Mr. Angelos is a music-theatre production with a strong visual identity, featuring an original text, direction and dramaturgy by Thanassis Sarantos. The performance draws inspiration from the life and work of Angelos Papadimitriou, one of Greece’s most distinctive visual artists and performers.

Blending theatre, live music, song and a stage world inspired by Papadimitriou’s unique artistic language, the performance explores the relationship between art and memory, beauty and loss, desire, and the profound human need to create.

Papadimitriou’s porcelain works, handmade constructions, visual imagery, songs and personal memories are transformed into theatrical material, creating a poetic universe where lyricism blends with humour, tenderness coexists with loss, and art becomes an act of resistance against time and decay.

Live music is performed on stage by Alexandros Avdeliodis, featuring works by Attik, Kostas Giannidis, Giorgos Mitsakis, Kapnisis, Kurt Weill and other distinguished composers.

The performance also features actor Paris Skartsolias, who serves as both the dramatic counterpart and apprentice of Mr. Angelos, guiding the audience through a journey where myth, memory and contemporary reality become inseparable.

SYNOPSIS

A thirty-year-old unemployed actor, now working as a tour guide in Delphi, encounters a mysterious Apollonian persona inspired by the life and artistic legacy of Angelos Papadimitriou.

Through songs, memories, humour and intimate confessions, the two men embark on an unexpected journey of self-discovery, crossing the fragile boundaries between reality and imagination, theatre and memory.

As their relationship deepens, the young man begins searching for his own Apollo: his lost creative voice, the courage to reclaim his artistic identity, and the performer he once dreamed of becoming.

Mr. Angelos, armed with humour, generosity and the wisdom of an artist who has transformed life into art, reveals that creation is not a luxury but a necessity—a way of transforming loss, fear and vulnerability into life itself.

Singing Lessons with Mr. Angelos is a music-theatre performance about the transformative power of art, the encounter between two generations, and the enduring secret that enables human beings to continue creating, loving and dreaming.

ABOUT THE STORY

Paris, a thirty-year-old unemployed actor working as a tour guide at the archaeological site of Delphi, spends his days introducing visitors to the myths, prophecies and stories of the ancient world. He knows the lives of heroes and gods by heart, yet struggles to find meaning in his own.

His encounter with Mr. Angelos, a mysterious Apollonian persona inspired by the life, work and spirit of Angelos Papadimitriou, leads him on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.

Through songs, humour, confessions and moments of profound tenderness, the two men share stories, fears and dreams while travelling through a world where reality merges with memory, theatre and imagination.

Gradually, Paris begins searching for his own Apollo: his personal ideal, his lost creativity and the courage to reconnect with the artist he once hoped to become.

With humour, compassion and poetic wisdom, Mr. Angelos reveals that artistic creation is not a privilege but an essential human need—the ability to transform sorrow, fear and personal wounds into beauty and life.

Set within the extraordinary landscape of the Roman Agora of Delphi, the performance invites audiences to experience an encounter between antiquity and contemporary Greece, between myth and autobiography, and between memory and artistic creation.

Land of the Heroes

“Land of the Heroes” is a music-theatre performance blending physical theatre and performance art, where six musicians and one performer coexist on stage as a unified scenic organism. Inspired by the historical example of the improvised “Zirkus Konzentrazani,” the piece explores human existence through play, laughter, and failure as acts of resistance and persistence. The stage transforms into a fragile circus world where acts begin, collapse, and restart, revealing human vulnerability. Live music—drawing from historical compositions and classical repertoire—functions as a bridge between memory and the present. Rather than narrating a story, the performance creates an experiential space in which the audience is invited to reflect on what it means to remain human under pressure. It is a poetic and symbolic work that emphasizes presence, endurance, and the fragile dignity of the human condition.

Whatever Remains Human

This music-theatre performance is an artistic fusion of music, poetry, and theatrical storytelling, centered on the musical work and personal archive of the musicologist, researcher, and composer Markos Dragoumis. For the first time, his piano compositions and musical settings of poems by Andreas Embirikos and Nanos Valaoritis are presented, revealing the multifaceted nature of his compositional voice, its expressionist character, impressionist influences, references to tradition, and engagement with modal music. This rare material is interwoven with the narratives of Filippos and Natalia Dragoumi, who bring to the stage memories, letters, and diary entries from the world of their father, lending the performance a deeply personal and experiential dimension. Inspired by authenticity and sincerity beyond restrictive social and artistic conventions, Dragoumis offers a liberating source of inspiration for contemporary creation. Pianist Masa Josillo and performer-composer Fenia Christou approach this material through the directorial vision of Penelope Flouri. The work ultimately asks what remains human today, through art and through the act of coming together.

Enter the Storehouse, It Is Safe

Enter the Storehouse, It Is Safe is a music-theatre performance conceived by Stamatis Pasopoulos. On stage, six performers—a trio of traditional vocalists and a three-member folk ensemble (gaida, kaval, and dahares/drum), led by the composer himself—uncover and reconstruct fragments of the cultural memory of his homeland, the region of Serres. At the same time, they explore the community’s relationship with the supernatural, its connection to the land, the bonds among its members, and the role of music and dance in collective life.

The performance transforms the sounds, movements, and symbols of these ritual traditions into a contemporary artistic event. Through a collective exploration of timbre and sound, it seeks to recreate the moment of language’s birth; traditional songs—both inherited and newly composed—interact with vocal experimentation; local instruments are approached through techniques drawn from contemporary music; and communal dance traditions inform the staging and choreography of the work. By bringing together memory, ritual, and innovation, the performance offers a vivid reflection on cultural identity and the enduring power of collective expression.

When One Is Human – Coexistence, Nature and Chamber Music

This musical performance explores the idea that human beings are shaped through coexistence with others and through their relationship with nature. These two dimensions are presented as fundamental conditions for humanity, balance, and personal maturity. At the heart of the event is a performance of Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14, Death and the Maiden by an ensemble of four musicians. This iconic work approaches mortality, fear, and acceptance with both intensity and sensitivity, leading not to despair but to a deeper reconciliation with the inevitable.

The performance is complemented by the photographic exhibition Promenade, presented along the pathway leading to the Roman Odeon of Kos. Through images that explore the relationship between humanity and nature, as well as themes of time and decay, the exhibition serves as an introduction to the immersive experience of the musical event. Together, music and visual art invite the audience to reflect on the human condition, the passage of time, and the enduring connections that bind people to one another and to the natural world.

Wise, Foolish and Troublesome: Self-Portraits Beyond Political Correctness

— In what way are philosophers superior to other people?
— “Even if all laws were abolished, we would continue to live in exactly the same way!”

Lucian places philosophers and would-be philosophers up for sale in the marketplace, as figures such as Skarimbas, Gonatas, Souris, but also Embirikos and Sarantaris arrive on the scene—perhaps Theophilos as well, along with others who “took to the mountains so that the plain would not devour them.”

These are thinkers who, each in their own way, balanced between marginality and worldliness. Yet anyone who approaches them closely discovers that the roots of their thought are nourished by the same deep spring of humanism. Within the outline traced by these personalities and their writings, a dynamic sonic

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