The great Greek performer will stand in front of the public of Thessaloniki Maria Farandouri to celebrate them 60 years of singingand to flood with her voice the inner courtyard of Eptapyrgio, in the heart of the emblematic monument.

The Heptapyrgio Festival 2023 hosts the production of the Cultural Center of the Central Macedonia Region with the title “Maria Faradouri – I’ve been singing for 60 years”a concert in which songs that defined her and that were loved by the world will be presented.

Through them, her story will unfold, how she met him for the first time at the age of 16 Miki Theodorakis and finally connected her voice to his work, but also her historic appearances in the concerts they gave together around the world during the period of the dictatorship of the colonels.

“Maria Farandouri enthusiastically responded to our proposal to celebrate her artistic birthday here, in Thessaloniki. “We will present something unique”, he promised us: “songs representative of my entire career”” the president of the Cultural Center of the Greek Orthodox Church Anna Mykoniou told APE-MPE.

Maria Farandouri has collaborated with leading Greek composers, while she has distinguished herself in Greece and abroad by presenting a rich repertoire with international collaborations with distinguished musicians, composers and performers from all over the world.

“She and Achillea Vastor have been curating this program since last December and have included many well-known and beloved pieces as well as some that have meaning for her and some symbolism. I am sure that with the passion that distinguishes her we will experience two unique evenings tonight and tomorrow at the Eptapyrgiou Fortress” added Mrs. Mykoniou.

The program begins with a video tribute to her life and work, her difficult childhood and her traumatic experience when she was stricken by the era’s epidemic, polio, and was forced away from her parents and quarantined in sanatorium for six months.

But she also refers to her adolescence, when she experienced her first creative experiences with her participation in the choir of the Friends of Hellenic Music (SFEM), a time when she realized that singing would become her path and way of life. In fact, her special, contralto voice led her from being a member of the choir to becoming a soloist very soon.

Of course, a special mention is made of the SFEM event in 1963, when Mikis Theodorakis heard her sing one of his own songs, “Kaimos” and was enchanted. At the end of the concert he met her backstage and said: “Do you know that you were born to sing my songs?” “I know” was the immediate response of the then sixteen-year-old Maria. The same summer he joined the group of the great Greek composer.

In 1965 she made her first professional recording and in 1966 her collaboration with Manos Hadjidaki, John Williams, Federico García Lorca. Canto General and Pablo Neruda, Eckerhardt Schall and Bertolt Brecht, The Beatles, Jazzist Nels Cline, Manos Loizos, Manolis Anagnostakis, Zülfü Livaneli, Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Vangelis Papathanasiou and Charles Lloyd they are only a few of the many stations of her international course in the 60 years that followed that summer of ’63.

It is not the first time that she has participated in the Eptapyrgio Festival, for which she has expressed herself with the warmest words. “He is one of the most giving artists and people I have met”, emphasizes Anna Mykoniou. “We met at last year’s Festival and our discussions were a blessing. She showed great interest in the institution we created, encouraged us and gave us strength with her words. I keep from that collaboration as a precious gift, the song that he dedicated to me on the second night, from the stage, “Eleni” by Thanos Mikroutsikos”, added the president of the Culture Center of PKM.

The anniversary concert “Maria Faradouri – 60 years of singing” will be presented tonight and tomorrow at the Eptapyrgio Festival at 21:15.

She will be accompanied vocally by Evi Siamanda, on piano by Achilleas Vastor, on wind instruments by David Lynch, on bouzouki and mandolin by Heraklis Zakkas, on cello by Michalis Porphyris and on double bass by Vassilis Koutsonanos.