This summer, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) remains the coolest part of the city, not only for the walks along the Canal, the walks in Stavros Niarchos Park and the sea view, but also for the very interesting, fresh , his music program.
The two favorite concert series, Parklife in the Glade of the Park Stavros Niarchos and Music Escapades at Panoramic Stairs, they return with names from Greece and abroad, covering a wide range of music choices for all tastes.
From the crossroads of cultures represented by the presence and sound of Yasmin Levy, to one of the most important and most special hip hop groups of all time, such as Arrested Development, and from the coexistence of two selected songwriters of the new Athenian scene (Jef Maarawi and Jack Heart) in an eclectic night that Pavlina Voulgaraki will honor great female voices.
The concert summer opens on May 22 with the special singer Maria Papageorgiou, while the ERT National Symphony Orchestra completes with the symphonic performance of one of the most important records of all time, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, a few months before the turn of the century since its release.
The summer at the SNFCC is full of musical surprises. Just before leaving the city (or after you have returned), you can spend the evenings in Stavros Niarchos Park with an excellent soundtrack.
All concerts are free with a donation thanks to the donation of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (ISN).
The program of the concerts is as follows:
Music Escapades: Maria Papageorgiou – Sunday 22 May at 21.00 – Panoramic Stairs
Maria Papageorgiou with five musicians sets up a special concert at the Panoramic Stairs of the SNFCC. The well-known singer and songwriter welcomes the summer with songs of her own, recent releases of new colleagues, but also valuable snapshots from art and traditional music, which tie together harmoniously forming a program rich in emotions and surprises.
Maria Papageorgiou lives and works in Athens as a musician and vocal teacher. She interprets, composes and sets up performances with a completely personal artistic stigma and a loyal audience that is constantly growing. She has released personal albums, has participated in albums of her colleagues and, at a peak moment for her career so far, collaborated with Mikis Theodorakis creating the album Correspondence, following a proposal by the composer himself for a second reading of ten of his songs. In the spring of 2020, amid a pandemic, the album ESORIA was released digitally, which includes seven works of international repertoire. He has written orchestral themes for short films, is a performer at the Quasi Stellar dance theater of Apostolia Papadamaki and recently worked as a producer on the Second Program of the Greek Radio, presenting the show “The Songs of Others”.
Parklife: Yasmin Levy – Saturday, July 2 at 21.00 – Xefoto, Stavros Niarchos Park
The daughter of Turkish immigrants of Sephardic descent, Levy established herself by modernizing Ladino (a medieval type of song in “Jewish” Spanish) with elements of flamenco and traditional Turkish music. The result is a completely new entry in world music, which has been serving for over 15 years and has turned it into an international star.
Levy has been a huge success, with more than 120 million views of her tracks on YouTube, rave reviews in the world’s major media and TV appearances on both sides of the Atlantic. The highlight was the album Mano Suave released in 2007 but until 2021 it was still in the top 10 of the World Music Charts and in the Viral 50 list of Spotify in various countries.
Her last great success was the dance remix in the song “La Alegria”, in her discography we also find “Nací en Álamo”, an adaptation of a composition by Dionysis Tsaknis from 1990, while it is worth mentioning that she is a Goodwill Ambassador for “Children of Peace” organization that helps minors suffering from conflicts in the Middle East.
Music Escapades: Jef Maarawi (Full Band) & Jack Heart and The Love Ghosts – Friday 8 July at 21.00 – Panoramic Stairs
Two of the most interesting singer-songwriters of the Athenian scene join forces in a very interesting evening.
Jef Maarawi may have been born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but it is in Athens that he has traced his artistic career, in theater and music.
He has released three albums on Inner Ear (most recently the wonderful Terra Papagalli album of 2021, a tribute to the Athenian exotica) and is enjoyable live with his larger than life extroverted presence.
Jack Heart (pronounced Nikolas Kokolakis, originally from Tinos) took its artistic name from a piece by Bob Dylan and has already released two albums with Love Ghosts, combining modern guitar sound with the legacy of traditional songwriting. Together, they have previously shared the scene with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Editors, Wolf Alice and The Last Drive.
Parklife: Arrested Development – Friday 15 July at 21.00 – Xefoto, Stavros Niarchos Park
At a time when the US was entering the constellation of gangsta rap and the great rivalry between the east and west coasts that characterized the ’90s, a group from Atlanta proposed a completely different hip hop model. Led by Speech and Headliner, Arrested Development released 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of το in 1992, an optimistic anthem in African-American culture that sold more than 4 million copies and won them two Grammy Awards.
They wrote the track “Revolution” for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, contributing to one of the biggest black power moments on the big screen, financially helping Nelson Mandela’s fight in South Africa, and in 1996 taking a break to return to 2000, with changes in their composition and Speech remaining “their brain”.
Since then they have played all over the world, continuing to release albums (they have reached 15 studio albums) that are loved by audiences and critics and are another different, more “spiritual” version of hip hop that now unites more than one generation.
Music Escapades: Pavlina Voulgaraki – Thursday 21 July at 21.00 – Panoramic Stairs
Pavlina Voulgaraki, a renowned songwriter who builds bridges between art and pop, presents a tribute to the great female voices that shaped her: from Sade, Stevie Nicks, PJ Harvey and Grace Slick, to Dimitra Galani, Charoula Alexiou, Arleta and Eleni Tsaligopoulou.
In a program with songs for “open summer sky”, conveying a message to “those who look up”.
With her are Tfatfy, an Athenian quartet-supergroup that reveals a different face of its members, whom we have met in other bands, such as Modrec, Knight Night, Planet of Zeus, etc. Only here Minas Liakos, Stelios Provis, Serafeim Giannakopoulos and Spyros Manesis bring out a fusion improvisational mood and move on jazz / funk paths.
Parklife: National Symphony Orchestra and Choir of ERT / Dark Side of the Moon – 50-Year Anniversary – Thursday, July 28 at 21.00 – Xefoto, Stavros Niarchos Park
Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon in March 1973, entering the post-Syd Barrett phase of their careers, delivering an album that has sold more than 45 million copies and is now a classic in all of it. From the legendary cover of Hipgnosis to the tracks that sound just as fresh today, such as “Money”, “The Great Gig in the Sky” and “Us and Them”, continuing to surprise and inspire new versions.
Thus, the National Symphony Orchestra and the ERT Choir, in collaboration with the SNFCC, present an unexpected concert that visits the “Symphony Side of the Moon”. Orchestrated by Achilles Wastor, prepared by a choir by Michalis Papapetrou and music by Stathis Soulis, one of the most important albums of all time is presented with a symphonic sound and invites us to discover it again from the beginning.
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