Monday 29 June, 20.30-21.45
Ceremony Hall Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

 

1^st part

Music for Harp ensemble

The section of the concert dedicated to four harps presents three contemporary compositional approaches connected with Thessaloniki, through works by Michalis Lapidakis, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, and Naya Myserli. It is presented in collaboration with the Contemporary Music Lab AUTH, directed by Dimitri Papageorgiou.

2^nd part

Composers of Thessaloniki and the Thessaloniki and the National School.

Works by Emil Riadis, loris Margaritis, Marios Varvoglis, Nicolas Astrinidis.

Tuesday 30 June, 20.30-21.30
 St Demetrius Basilica

Thessaloniki was an influential hub for Byzantine ecclesiastical chants and hymnography. It produced and nurtured legendary Byzantine composers like Ioannis Koukouzelis, who profoundly shaped Orthodox choral music. Historic Byzantine churches throughout the city serve as live acoustic venues for Byzantine choirs. The Basilica of Saint Demetrius is the main sanctuary dedicated to the patron Saint of Thessaloniki. A World Heritage monument is dating back to the 7th century. As the patron saint of Thessaloniki, Demetrius (the "Myrrh-Gusher") is honored with hymns written by early Byzantine composers. The concert contains representative pieces connected to Thessaloniki, on the level of music composition in different historical periods, and of devotional life of the city in the orthodox churches. It displays rich sonorities of the Byzantine eight-mode-system (oktoechos) in different genres and categories of chant, both in syllabic, syllabo-melismatic and highly melismatic musical textures, allowing for a panoramic view of Byzantine melopoeia through the centuries.

Thursday 2 July 12.45-13.40, 

Emilios Riadis Hall, Thessaloniki Concert Hall

Performed by Theodora Iordanidou

 Giorgos Sakallieros, Sonatine (13’)

Ballade 1994. Quasi Rondo

Dimitris Maronidis, Les Signaux du Vent for flute and electronics (7’)

Michalis Lapidakis, Ein andrer Hauch I (7’)

Dimitri Papageorgiou, Waiting long enough for our last breath (8’)

Gundega Smite, somnio (in)somnium (6’)

Zesses Seglias, lonesingness/flussingness (4’)

Costas Tsougras, Lament for Theodore (4’)

This matinée presents works for solo flute by contemporary composers based in Thessaloniki, highlighting diverse compositional voices and aesthetic approaches within the city’s current musical landscape. The program brings together and recent repertoire that explores the expressive and sonic possibilities of the modern flute and the bass flute as solo instruments. The works are connected through ongoing artistic research related to contemporary music practices.

Moving between the conscious and the subconscious, the program touches upon deeply human experiences of contemporary life such as alienation, loneliness, insomnia, psychological fragility, the erosion brought by time and the experience of loss and farewell. Across these narratives, the concept of breath emerges both as a fundamental condition of sound and life, and as a potential space of resonance and suspension, transition, and final release.